Rebirth Protocol
by Sixth Limb of Sephiroth
Summary: A simple woman seeks some peace. Sephiroth, renewed, confused, sees that she's more than what she seems. The parallels are staggering, cross-hatching; these new wings are quite suspicious. Who would give him revival? -Old fanfiction is old.-
1. Prologue: Journey to Destiny

_Disclaimer:__ Do I really have to put this within every fanfic I make? Time and again, I shall say that all characters, locations, etc., are not copyrighted to me unless duly noted. Drana is my original character and MINE only. _

_**From Sixth: **As per the title (not any longer), this is a revision of one of my earlier fics, my very first one in fact. In the beginning, I thought if I simplified everything, it would be easier to read… Having looked back, I see that that had been something of a stupid thing to do and so…

* * *

_

_**The Other One-Winged Angel: Revisited**_

_**Prologue: Journey to Destiny**_

My little wintry hometown, Icicle Inn.

I loved it very much but... then I started to get tired of it.

As lovely as the scenery was, the wonder wore thin on my eyes. There was snow day in and day out and it made me dizzy more often than not. I wanted to leave this place so badly, to go where flowers were everywhere or at least where they could be grown. I wanted to go to the main continent, however I was unsure. I'd remembered hearing all the things that happened there in the past, of giant monsters rising from the earth and attacking civilization. A humongous ball of fire, as big as the moon, hung in the sky like an unmoving pendulum, looming other than rocking to a countdown of doom. Then… it vanished one fateful day in a great big light that webbed across the sky, rising from planet's face itself. And panic wracked the world no more.

That had been two years ago.

Now I wondered about the state of things on the other side of the sea. From foreigners, I'd heard that a city, _the city, _called Midgar had fallen and was now nothing more than a pile of burnt rubble, but that was about all I'd heard about it. So my deduction on the matter was that it was safe now. No more monsters and certainly no more falling stars terrorized land, sea and sky. I could go to the main continent. This would be my chance to see a new world after having spent all my life in Icicle.

And so, I began my plans for leaving this land of ice and snow and beginning my journey to a new and yet uncharted place as far as I was concerned. I'd learned of ships docking at a harbor outside Bone Village, on the opposite end of this continent that I lived on. It lied southeast of here, so many miles away. But despite the distance, this was good for me. Now I could pack all my things, those that I needed anyways, fetch myself a Chocobo and leave Icicle at last. And what was better was that I found it strangely easy to catch Chocobos compared to others. I often didn't even need greens to lure them in.

It just came as a knack, to call them and they'd come, without fear. So it would be as easy as that.

One day, I would have to question that.

--

Finally, the day came.

After long thought and preparation, the time had come.

I had whatever I needed packed and ready, and then I promptly weaved my way through the small town, to the local shop for things for my trip. The people with whom I'd made friends in Icicle watched me pass by on my merry way. And when I said friends, it basically meant everyone in town. That was how I saw it, anyways. Everyone knew me as the most unique resident here, for my looks, my demeanor, and something else I couldn't quite place. No one ever told me and I never really asked.

The children with whom I'd often come out to play with followed behind me, noisily trudging along in their over-sized galoshes and thick winter coats, way too overdressed compared to me and my simple dress, jacket, and sock-like boots. They circled me with curious eyes, the way they always did when playing with me, as to why I seemed to be so busy today.

"Morning," they chimed together.

I smiled down at them, then to myself, however never stopping in my trek to the shop. These boys never ceased to amaze me. Neither did their father, the man who gave me my own home.

"Good morning."

"What are you doing so early?" asked one of the children.

"Oh, just buying some things here and there," I chimed with purpose. "Today's very important and I have to get ready."

"Ready for what?"

"I'm leaving."

The boys stopped dead in their tracks and traded curious glances with each other. I still continued on to the shop on the western edge of town and entered the building, where my kiddy friends eventually caught up with me.

It made me sad to leave without much of a notice to anyone but this was something I thought I had to do. After a tiny bit of goading from both them and the shopkeeper, I'd finally revealed my reason for buzzing like a busy bee. I told them of my soon-to-be departure from Icicle. Of course, they all gave me a round of frowns that spoiled my soul a little bit, but I held my ground. I explained that I needed to leave; I needed time away from this place. The shopkeeper, for one, understood, and one by one, my small friends began to see the light, too. I certainly wasn't the only one with dreams of someday leaving this place, to see what lay beyond.

Yet they were still sad that they would have to see me go. The boys, I had to remember them. They were my best friends. But I promised them all that I'd come back again, so they shouldn't sulk any more than they had or needed or even wanted to.

"I'll be back. You've been so good to me, I'd never abandon you guys. We'll see each other again, there's no doubt in my mind about that. And there shouldn't be any doubt in yours, either. So… keep your chins up, keep this place happy and alive for me, okay? I want everything to be the same, if not better, when I come back home, okay? I'll miss you…"

After that, I bought all I needed and left posthaste. A few sad smiles and hopeful eyes were burned into my memory as I returned home to grab my belongings and then leave Icicle. A surprising little crowd had gathered, which made my departure a little harder than I liked. Some gave me hugs, a couple of respectful nods, and the rest, vague stares and glances. All in all, I said my goodbyes, trying not to make them too long, and then I trudged off into the snow fields.

* * *

--

For quite a few miles, I walked through inches of fresh morning snow, as solid and pure as the overcast slinking by above me, until I happened upon a lone wandering Chocobo.

It picked and pushed, with its large wedge of a beak, through the whiteness that sparkled under a spot of brief, bright sunshine. I grinned thoughtfully to myself; I was fortunate, too fortunate in fact. The sooner I'd found a Chocobo, the better.

I studied the creature in all its yellow-feathered glory. Tall, if a bit regal. It had a shaggy crest, though. Obviously, it must have been hungry, or why else would it pick through the snow the way it did? Of course… there were countless explanations for everything but for now, I clung to only one, and one I was prepared for. I stopped in my tracks and dropped my bag into the snow. I knelt down, reached inside and withdrew some greens, ripe and perfect for just such an occasion.

"Okay…" Taking a deep breath, I lifted an arm into the air and waved in the best eye-catching manner I could to grab the big bird's attention. I called out, "Hey there, chocobo! Over here! Are you hungry? I've got a treat for you..."

The great avian raised its head curiously.

We both stared at one another, as if locked in a contest of eyeful stamina.

"Um… want some nice greens? They're Reagans!" I dangled the russet colored vegetables before me and smiled. The Chocobo took a step forward, cautious yet still brave in its approach.

Pretty soon, the bird and I were face to face. It loomed above me in its towering stature but I was less than intimidated. There was no way birds like these could ever be so mean, at least not intentionally. Warming hopefully, I continued to dangle the greens between me and it, coaxing the Chocobo to take them.

"They're just for you, you know," I said with a slight nod and smile. The bird jutted its beak at the greens I held with determination, testing their genuineness for what they were and should have been, otherwise I was a really gullible thing to have gotten fake greens. But the tiny gusts of air brushing my face from its nostrils meant good, I knew it, and, finally, it accepted my gifts. "Good Chocobo. Now that you're here, would you mind taking me for a ride?"

The creature stared at me with enormous crystal-like eyes. It blinked once and twittered, bending its stalk of a neck towards me. Even through this scrutiny, I maintained a smile to show I meant no harm. Eventually, the Chocobo circled around me and lowered its yellow body close to the ground to where I could actually mount it.

"You will? Thank you, I'm sooo glad you understand... My name's Drana by the way. Nice to meet you," I said, gently stroking the bird's neck. It trilled in response and looked back my way. "I was wondering if... you could take me as far east as you can? That'd be nice. I heard there was a cave over there, I hope so, anyways. You can drop me off there and then do whatever you like, okay?

"Hehe, thank you…"


	2. Chapter 1: The Knowlespole

_**1: The Knowlespole**_

"_You know, I've always wondered… How do I know what I know? It can't have come from thin air… How do I know how to cook? How do I know how to eat? How do I know how to sleep? How do I know anything? It just makes me think, you know?" Drana

* * *

_

_---  
_

While the Chocobo raced on across the calm glittering tundra, the icy air burned my face but I paid it no mind. It was a nuisance I could more than ignore; I was, after all, on my way out of this white wonderland.

Quite a few hours passed while 'my' Chocobo and I traveled speedily across the snow. It seemed no time had passed, if only too slow for me to have ever noticed. At least, that was my impression. But it was already midday, of which the overcast belied for the most part.

Seconds, minutes, hours.

We were fast approaching a mountain range that ran north and south, but those that trailed northbound bore snow-caps than those southbound. It wasn't much of a handy detail, but I logged it in my memory for reference, as far as traveling would be involved. While my mind mulled over this, sorted through that, the Chocobo neared the comfortable range of mountains. Their alpine heights became intensely more breathtaking in the mad dash towards them. Beneath the cold breeze that smacked at my face and hair, I saw an opening at the foot, somewhat to the south of where we were heading. Doubtless, this was the cave I heard of that travelers would use in getting through the mountains, rather than over or around, which most found to be very impossible.

The Chocobo finally reached the mouth of a cave. It was broad yet smoothly carved into the stone. Deeper within, it seemed filled with rainbow-like light. This was the most I'd ever been fascinated in my life so far. Here, I could hardly contain my wanderlust. Of course, there was always danger to consider. On foot, monsters and other such brutes were more likely to be encountered. That meant I couldn't dawdle in the caves like I thought at first.

I frowned darkly but maintained my excitement.

"Okay, Chocobo, now you're free," I said, smiling and patting large bird on the wing. "Hope to see you again someday, okay? Now go on." It chirped and trilled softly, cocking its head down at me. I huffed in feigned exhaustion and pushed the creature-- no small task in the slightest-- so that it'd be on its way back to the carefree life of a Chocobo.

It squawked and reared high on its two legs. I backed away, watching it prance frantically and then turn and dash off into the distance, leaving behind a broad yellow feather on the ground. This I picked up and pored over, smirking thoughtfully, and proceeded to stuff it in my bag for later admiration.

I turned towards the cave, inhaled deep and marched inside.

The cave interior was cool and bigger than I thought at first. The crystalline glow was more pronounced where it was darker inside than outside. The whole place appeared pretty straightforward; I'd probably have had to work to get lost here. Still, there was always a slight chance.

I noticed that, by the stone formations riddling the cavern as I walked on, one could have guessed that the entire area had been underwater at one time. I found myself so engrossed by the soft and colorful figures of rock that-

"Ahh!"

My foot caught on a bumpy mound, throwing me fast forward and down a sloping hole that felt as if it zigzagged in every direction. I could barely see a thing beyond my bag, which I held tight, and my own clothes which flapped wildly all around me. Instantly, my body veered off a steep edge and went plummeting who knew how many feet down yet another hole. I smacked into a surface just as slippery and uneven and started tumbling and rolling yet again.

"Agh!"

Fed up, I threw my arms out for anything that might come my way and stop my rocky path to depths unknown.

And that I did.

My hands latched onto a rough, keen ledge of stone just as I was sent flying for the second time. My face slammed hard into the wall I opposed, along with the rest of my body. My ears rang out loud and stars sparked in my eyes.

"… my nose…" I grumbled. I strove to cling to the edge, desperately not wanting to fall. I tried looking over my shoulder but the movement made my hand felt like it was slipping and I twisted back, keeping my face pressed to the clammy cavern wall. "Ugh… I should have known something like this would happen… How am I gonna get out of this?"

I hung there for minutes, short minutes, without a word, plotting how to climb out of this ordeal.

A shadow loomed above me, small but imposing all the same. I let my eyes drift upward to meet it face to face.

"Oh!" I gasped.

A pudgy, chattering little thing sniffed at my hands which were white with strain. I found its beady yellow eyes and spiked back intimidating, especially in the situation I was now. I bit my lip to avoid making anymore noises that might alarm it, because it didn't look like it was meant to be calm.

"… mmm… go away, monster, shoo…" I hissed. "Shoo."

It didn't even flinch.

"Leave me alone, okay? G-get back. Get-"

"Grraaaaah!" The creature screeched in return.

"AAH!"

* * *

--

* * *

The sun managed to slip past the overcast and beam down on the meager tip of chasm. The wind ran hollow with there being so many passages to wander through. Birds cried overhead, alerting my less-than-passed-out self that I was still alive, albeit somewhat aching all over. I awoke, lying on my face on the cool, hard ground. I could feel light shining down, weak as it was, but I found it comforting. I rose up on my elbows and scanned the area about me. I'd come a long ways from my fall, lying near a misleadingly humble cave mouth, not too similar from the one I had first entered to get where I was now. Sunshine filtered down into it, bringing with it a gentle kind of warmth I more than needed to get up.

"Ugh… I am never doing that again," I told myself. I sat up and checked my belongings to see if anything had fallen out along the way. Nothing was lost, to my budding relief. Sighing, I lifted myself to my feet, brushed off and adjusted my clothes and took another sweeping scan.

I left the small alcove and came to stand on a ledge that overlooked a quaint vale. I gasped silently; to my surprise, there sat a humongous, sheltered spiked shell like a conch. Still in awe, I crept to the edge of the ledge and looked down. It was too large to take in all at once, but even then it was amazing.

Down below, there were other structures that seemed as if they'd come from the sea: coral and shell… Coral and…

"This must be… Coral Valley," I whispered listlessly. "Right, no doubt about it… Coral Valley…" I peered down again at the ground and pondered aloud to myself, "But how to get down there? Hmm."

I glanced here, there, everywhere, for some way to get to the area below. I once more found myself gazing up at the conch's majesty for whole minutes at a time. Then I saw. One of the shell's long curving spikes rested against the ledge, making a convenient catwalk for crossing over into the conch's chambers. I approached the spike and placed one foot on it, gauging its sturdiness. I couldn't trust myself with scaling it upright because I was sometimes clumsy, but I had to chance it.

"Hmm… Looks okay…" I hopped onto the spike, dropped to my hands and knees, and began cautiously but hastily scrambling across it, soon enough into the upper chambers of the shell through one of its many holes. "Heh, piece of cake…"

I started my descent through the spiraling interior, careful not to slip and slide out of the broad and numerous cracks in its walls. Eventually, I made it to the ground with neither scratches nor bruises, much to my relief. I sighed, full of triumph, and then proceeded south.

Deeper into this valley, I stumbled upon yet another sight. As I followed the paths rolling out before me, paved with what also looked like crudely squared shards of shell, this was a marvel that struck me as solidly as falling down a hole.

In the distance stood a huge structure like white barren trees, smooth yet jagged, spiraling towards the sky. It looked like a frozen blossom of twisted branches, surrounded by green round discs that appeared to float amongst each other. Or… maybe it was all coral? Different shapes and sizes of coral and shell and ancient sea life that lived in this valley years ago, leaving their bodies behind to form this dazzling thing of what might have been a building…

"Whoa," I exhaled, dashing up the path. Towards its end, I noticed that more than just that one structure occupied the valley below but a whole city's worth. Primitive things of stone and shell.

I knew this place.

This was the Knowlespole that people in Icicle talked about, and that travelers braved to get to their winter burg. I just as well recalled that this place was also dubbed City of the Ancients. The Forgotten Capital. This mystical niche in the land was the marvel that scholars dreamed about.

"Knowlespole…"

The day was fading quickly, the sky a miraculous blending of orange, red and blue. It was unlike the afternoon sky above Icicle on most any given day. This one had the subtle glory of forever guarding a grand piece of history nestled beneath it. And slowly but surely, I felt at home here. I had no idea why, but I did.

"Mmm… Oh! I need to find shelter. I can't stand out here like this…" With that, I hurried down the hillock where I stood, to the vast secluded city locked in time.

* * *

...


	3. Chapter 2: Porcelain Wraiths

_**2: Porcelain Wraiths**_

"_So let me get this straight… Is unique good or bad? Am I unique or just…what? I see the way their eyes narrow. And I see how yours brighten. So why do they hate it and why do you like it? I don't get it. Shouldn't we all just…like it somehow?" -Drana

* * *

_

_-----  
_

I skipped along a shelled path that led southwest, down to where the stone houses were situated. I lent an ear to the lonely wind as it blew past me and wondered, just wondered. I wondered what the story of this city was and why the people that lived here left it behind. No one in Icicle could not rightly say because they didn't really know themselves, rather than not want to explain it. I guessed that only its Ancients the people who made a living researching their home would have an idea. So, for now, I'd leave it at that.

I wandered aimlessly upon a little square of houses. Naturally, I chose to explore the one nearest me. With my entrance, I came to see how angular and artless these houses were made.

"The Ancients must have been some simple folk," I muttered to myself but then, I took time to look things over a bit more, and saw that there was somewhat more décor to be had. In a few little alcoves along the walls, shells were fitted, and also countless starfish of reds, blues, and tawny yellows. Some were broken, half crumbled from time; others were exactly as they had been from whenever they were first set in place.

I grinned mindfully at the crudely made furniture: the stone table that knelt towards the floor on three legs, the broken down chairs made of sticks and hide tied together, the simple rotted sack-like cushions and other things of little ancient value. Another sweeping eye revealed a staircase that led up to the second floor, which I almost didn't notice.

"Hmm… what's up here?" I hopped up the stairs. There wasn't much that met the eye. Just an old bed and some aged particulars spilt from a tattered basket in the corner. I approached the bed and ran my hand across the lumpy, dust-covered surface. I twisted my face in tiny rampant ideas. _I wonder if it's sanitary, _I thought to myself.

I turned around and looked over the edge where the upper floor here ended. If I was going to stay here, and there wasn't anywhere else in this dwelling to rest, then my only bet was this ratty old bed.

"Eh… Hmm, well, what to do… I can stay here or… I can _not_ stay here." I tapped my chin with an index finger and stared up at the gray uneven ceiling.

I started to descend the stairs.

There was a noise. It was like a frantic laugh, or a scared giggle if I had to choose between the two.

My descent stopped stiffly on the third step from the bottom.

"Ha..."

After a minute of bated breath, I darted my eyes to one side and kept them there. The rest of my body soon followed. Wary, I silently hummed then finished my descent and purposefully lumbered around the room like a rickety puppet, watching and listening for nothing in particular.

I puffed my cheeks out and spun around in a circle.

"Hummm… Is anybody… there?"

No answer came. And for that, I was thankful. However, I had to stay sharp. Whatever it was that made that noise could have still been around, nearby, somewhere. I stretched my arms out behind me and rolled my eyes in an arc towards the ceiling.

"Well, I guess that's that," I added out of haste, "so maybe now's the time for… some exploring before the day's over. Yup…"

I scattered down a southern path through the empty city, along the way spying a lower level of land where there sat more houses. By the look of the rooftops, everything was built close together, giving me more the impression of an old metropolis. Although, I'd… never seen a real metropolis in its own right to compare. Nevertheless, I kept walking until the pathway curved off to the eastern half of the city, even near to the limits itself. Water flowed close by, and farther beyond, the rest of the valley in which this place was sheltered.

I was tempted to head farther south but the sun was setting and I didn't want to be caught out in the open where monsters could attack.

I kept following the path east as it gently whipped back towards the north end. Eventually, off to the side, there sprouted up one such house, fashioned out of a shell, not unlike the giant conch but three times smaller in scale, if not more. I hurried, bursting through the door-less opening and taking a look around. The whole interior was in tune with the shape of the shell itself and soon I found my interest piqued once again.

"Ooh, okay, this place looks much more comfortable." I nodded wholeheartedly. I could have even called this shell-house great.

I came to notice a ladder on my left side, leading up. No doubt a place to sleep was hidden there, so I made my way. When my head rose into the upper room, I was smacked in the face with a musky odor. The scent of age. I shrugged then hoisted myself from the ladder. It was roomy in a way, and that I liked. Things seemed tidy enough. I could sleep here if I wanted, and I wanted to. So, with a drop of my belongings on the floor, a leisurely tiptoe around the small space was in order.

"So much better." I felt at the beds occupying the right side of the room, and although dusty, they weren't as moldy as the other. I plopped down on the edge, lay back, and sighed. I listened to nothing and, listening to it for so long, it lulled me into something of a light sleep.

--

_Step._

_Step._

_Hum._

_Step, step, hum._

_Hum, hum._

_Huuum._

_Creak. Step. Step, hum, step, step._

_Stumble._

-

"Aah!"

I was jolted awake by a sudden weight falling across my stomach. I sprang up, slipping off the edge of the bed, smack dab into the floor. Dizzied, I fumbled around in the darkness, trying to get to my feet.

I stood up, wobbly on my own two legs at first, then steadied myself and moved forward. I rubbed my eyes and waited for focus in the darkness then spun in the opposite direction. I frowned under the cover of night and headed straight for the long silhouette sitting in front of me. I fell into it really without a thought, curled up on the scratchy, yet still comfortable ancient bedspread and nodded back off into sleep.

-

My side was stiff from having slept on it for so long. And my cheek had plastered itself to the half damp, half lumpy pillow, between which I wedged a finger to pry myself free. Unbeknownst of the floor, I rolled onto my face then over one more time than needed and crashed to the wooden floorboards.

"Ugh!"

I groaned and laid there on the floor for a moment, forced to gather my surroundings once more. I sat up, goggled the place sluggishly and yawned. "Ow… Why does my body feel so bad…?

"Can't be… anything serious," I reassured myself, rising to all fours and eventually to my feet. I stretched, flexed and yawned a second time.

Of course, something seemed to question my movements with the faintest whisper. I twirled all around, searching for the source but there was none.

"Hmm…"

A sudden throb of whispering all the louder sounded as if it came from below. I hastily crept to the space in the floor and snuck a downward glance. There was no one there, either. The only thing that caught my eye was a glowing white stone on a wooden brazier. Had that been there before? If it had, then I obviously missed it, strange as it was even if I didn't.

The sounds of whispers and murmurs were blaring now.

"It must be that stone…"

My ears caught the sudden noise of a footfall on creaky floorboards.

"Whoa!" I instantly fell back from the hole, clutching my chest, stunned.

Below, I saw something, a person. A woman. She was standing right at the ladder that led up to this room. She was just standing there, staring up at me, smiling, too. Her hair was long and brown, her body clothed in pink, and her eyes large, a welcoming and bright unearthly green.

For the longest time, nothing seemed to happen.

I sat there on the floor, wondering if she was still there. So I made my move to check. I crawled back over to the square opening and looked down. I gasped.

She was gone. Without a sound.

"… who was that?"

A chill ran across my shoulder, making me squirm uneasily. I straightened my body as best as I could. Gradually, gradually, I began to pivot to the right, still on my knees.

There was a smell, a stench I couldn't identify. All the same, it stung my nose and burned my eyes enough to make them mist over. Whatever gave it off was nearby. It was so strong, it couldn't have been more than a foot or two behind me. And it was for this theory of mine that I was turning to prove right or wrong.

My jaw went slack.

A chilling ghost of a thing hung over me, billowing with a faint green haze. That was what gave off that powerful smell. That haze which surrounded a lofty unmoving figure. That haze which surrounded a lofty unmoving _man._ And this man or whatever it was, motioned towards me with a pale hand. I jerked back, careful not to fall through the hole to the bottom floor as I retreated against the wall.

"G-Get back!" I shouted, raising an arm in defense.

_You…_

"Leave me alone!" I screamed.

It stopped just a few steps before me. It became still as a statue with smoke seeping out of it, the most bitter smelling smoke I ever had the displeasure of breathing. And then the haze started to clear, giving way to pale transparent skin and long flowing gray hair.

Long flowing gray hair.

Within the bat of an eye, the apparition vanished, leaving me sorely baffled.

"Uh… uh…" I gazed ahead at nothing for what felt like an eternity. Well, I'd actually been gazing at the spot where the man stood, looking for traces that it might have really been there, that it wasn't my imagination running wild, but there were none. There were no traces, no footprints, not even a hair. Nothing.

I rose to my feet, fixing my clothes and feeling at my chest for my heart. Fortunately, it was still present and accounted for. I was relieved by this. But, I would be even more relieved once I left this eerie city.

"…ghosts, ghosts, they must have been ghosts… Well, I'm not sticking around for anymore of this. Why didn't anybody tell me this city was haunted? Why? Well, I'm leaving right now. I'm not having anymore of this…" Seeing as how I hadn't unpacked a thing since I came to the Knowlespole, I'd hardly have a problem hightailing it out of there. And that was exactly what I did. I slung my bag over my shoulder and darted down the ladder, not caring whether I'd fall or not, as long as I got away.

I swept out of the shell house and down the curving path. I ran as fast as my legs would allow. Not once did I stop; I merely ran and ran and ran until I was clear of the haunted and empty metropolis, but I ran on, even still. I didn't stop, I didn't slow, I didn't tire. Well, really, I couldn't tell as I was just focusing on getting as far away as possible. I overlooked the ache in the muscles of my legs and pounded southward across rocky gray and green terrain.

If I remembered everything told to me, about where I'd need to go and what landmarks I'd pass along the way, then it was certain. I'd just as soon encounter the Sleeping Forest, which I hoped wouldn't be as spooky as the place I'd just escaped.

"Sleeping Forest... here I come…"


	4. Chapter 3: The Trail to Ruin

_**3: The Trail to Ruin**_

"_Funny that I don't know a thing about history. History about the planet, history about the continent, history about Icicle, history about myself. Do you think that's strange? Or maybe…I could possibly just be a moron of sorts? If I am, don't worry, I won't get mad at you for laughing at me. Or maybe…I dunno. Things are weird." -Drana

* * *

_

_---  
_

It was long after midday's peak that I finally reached the fringes of a forest. Fossilized coral and shell jutted from the earth among rock and tree alike. I treaded along a shell path that took me up a steep hill; from there I peeked over my shoulder to see the City of the Ancients far in the distance and narrowed my eyes in good riddance that I got away from there at last.

So I continued on.

I stepped lightly over the craggy, scaly ground, briefly looking down at my shoes. I was grateful that they'd held up so far the way they did. They weren't so badly scuffed after my trip through the caves the day before and my mad dash from the Knowlespole. Hopefully, they'd be able to stand up to even more later on. Because, they were the only pair I brought.

I pranced upon a fallen log that bridged the gap of a shallow rift and hurried towards what looked to be denser thicket and woods. Doubtless, I was reaching the heart of the Sleeping Forest. However, it felt to me like the atmosphere was moving. With the canopy even thicker than before, the sunlight that shone down glowed a dull green. Everything took on a dreamlike look to it. I had to manage a cautious eye all the while. Because something just didn't feel right. But then again, wasn't that always the case when traveling away from home?

"… mmm." I started to hum quietly to myself as I marched through the forest, shooting fleeting leers at this tree and that one. There was a strange feeling I gathered from each of them, a feeling I couldn't identify even if I tried. But it was strange, so strange. I began to fear if anything would happen just like at the Knowlespole. I hoped upon hope that I didn't just jinx myself there.

Ahead, the trees were thinning, becoming sparse between one another. This probably meant that I was getting close to Bone Village, which was supposed to lay beyond the Sleeping Forest, just on its brink.

The sunlight flickered at random past the blanket of leaves hovering overhead. Suddenly, it became a bit dark. It was as if a shroud of swelling pink had settled all about me, halting my trek. I lifted up my eyes and blinked curiously.

"Could it be overcast? Hmm…" I cocked my head at the thought, pondering for a second. I took a few more steps forward and then stopped. "Umm… I think I'll take a breather."

I perched under a tree nearest me and rummaged in my bag with determination. Out came a smaller bag which I popped open, withdrawing half a sandwich. I flipped it over and around in my hands, studying it for no particular reason other than I could. I considered it a little fun.

"Mmm…" I coughed to myself. I turned it over for the last time and went on to munch at my little snack anxiously.

Funnily, my mind began to twist about the existence of my sandwich itself, the two slices of wheat and slightly wilted lettuce and-

_You there…_

"Uh?!" In a start, I tossed the second half of my sandwich in the air, where it came to land smack in the grass next to me. I frowned at the last of my now ruined snack, but remained alert for the low voice that seemed to echo out of nowhere. I darted to my feet and called out, "Ah, who's there?"

_Who are you to disturb my slumber? _

"Y-your slumber? I-I disturbed... it?"

_Wait… You bear a soul much like the Cetra but are not Cetra yourself…_

"Huh? Cetra? What are you talking about? Who are you? Where are you?"

_This is the Sleeping Forest… Of course, you may pass…_

"Uh… okay?" I said in bewilderment. "Sleeping Forest? Since… when do forests talk?"

Silence.

"Strange…" I shook my head. Despite how much I was startled, at the very least it was nothing like what happened at the Knowlespole. Even then, however, I felt the need to leave here right away. I picked up my bag, mourned over the loss of my sandwich half for the last time, and hurried through the last stretch of thinning forest to sunlight.

The atmosphere brightened shortly thereafter and all that could be heard now instead of disembodied voices was birdsong in the trees.

---

I was elated to find myself in Bone Village, away from that ancient city, that distressing forest, and on my way to leaving this continent altogether. I hoped again to myself, deep down, that I wouldn't run into anymore things like that. No ghosts, no voices. Just new sights, new people, a new world, and the occasional new monster. It wouldn't have gotten any better than that.

I took a deep breath then traipsed right into the heart of Bone Village. My first impression of this place wasn't of a village at all. It looked more like a settlement, a camp. Why toss in the word village if this place wasn't really one at all? In almost a split second, I remembered that this was really only an excavation site. It was pretty small, pretty dusty, and pretty stranded looking. I assumed all the people that once worked this site had dug it dry and left for home.

A few 'stragglers' shuffled into view as soon as the idea had come and gone. I sighed, smirked to myself and subsequently set out asking around. Almost certainly I guessed that someone here would know where the harbor was because, apparently, it wasn't exactly nearby.

As I approached the lower end of the excavation site-slash-settlement, I managed to stop one of the straggling workers.

"Hello, excuse me, sir," I said in all politeness. The man slowed to a halt and rotated halfway to face me. His dark eyes roved up and down my body, and then back up to my face.

"Where did you come from, lady?" he questioned suspiciously.

"Um, I came through the Sleeping Forest." I let my eyes wander off to the side.

"Like where from?"

"Icicle."

_"Icicle?" _the man repeated in disbelief. He squawked a hearty chuckle and slapped his hip as if I had just told him the most hilarious joke in the world. I could only frown in response, just a tiny bit discouraged from standing in his company anymore. I wasn't expecting to get laughed at like this.

"Well, I…"

"Oh, heh, that was rich." He wiped at an eye while he waited for his mirth to die down. "Now, Miss, I gotta ask one more time, just for the record… Icicle?"

"Yeah, that's where I come from," I replied. "Is it that hard to believe?"

"Well, actually, yeah it is," the man remarked matter-of-factly. "I mean, look at you. The most you look like is some sheltered little housewife, not a traveler. And what's more? Aha, you don't have a scratch on ya."

"… and what does that mean?" I returned with an eyebrow quirked.

"I don't think you came from far at all. If you really did come from as far as Icicle like you said, then that _also _means that you've had to had come across monsters _and _battled with some _and _came away with a scratch or two, at least. Unless… you spent your entire time runnin', but even then…"

"That's it! I ran, a lot, I ran. Yup." I nodded with a grin. "Oh. And I had a Chocobo for a little while so that made some things easier, too."

"Lady, look," he sighed, "okay, okay, I've had enough of this. So, yeah, what is it? Were you going to ask me something before you decided to tickle me pink?"

"Tickle you… pink… Oh right! Yes, I wanted to ask if you knew the directions to the harbor. I heard there was one close to Bone Village."

"Harbor? Oh, the harbor." He took a breath, ran a hand over his somewhat oily, short black hair, and tossed his pointy chin to the east. "I'd say you head out straight south of here and follow the shore eastward. The harbor's that way if you wanna catch a ship. But I'd think that by this time, they're either sailing out or in the process of sailing in, so you might have to wait."

"Oh really? Thank you very much, sir." I bowed my head. The man solely chuckled again.

"Hey, hey, no problem, I guess. And one more thing: drop the sir bit. I ain't a businessman and I ain't royalty," he told me. I complied with a smile to his request and bowed my head again.

"Alright. Well, thanks so much for the directions. I'll be leaving now. Goodbye." I waved at the man, and then turned on my way for the harbor. But before I went any farther, he suddenly stepped in front of me. I stared up at him curiously, wondering why he blocked my path.

"Hey wait a sec. You know, while I stood here talking with ya, I got to thinking…" The worker stroked his grizzled chin with a gloved hand. He pointed a dusty finger and went on, "You look an awful like… Oh, hmmm… Never mind. Sorry for stopping ya. G'day."

The man bowed his head and shuffled out of my way. Yet, I hadn't moved. I was rooted in place, blinking in mild confusion.

"Um… you were gonna say I looked like… who?" I asked. "Do I resemble someone?"

"What? Nah, nah, I thought you did but then… Nothing, I guess. I gotta get back to work, anyway, if I want to leave out of here by morning."

"Uh right. Right…"

--

I spent a few hours walking along the beach, while the sun set behind me. I watched the tide ebb and flow, and every now and then, tall red things stalking in the distance.

By the time I was even within sight of the harbor, it was dark and almost dangerously breezy. The ocean waters were just as black as the night sky but it was nice to see the stars out. It reminded me just a bit of the nighttime sky over Icicle. I flinched briefly but recovered from my minor lapse of nostalgia. It was good, I supposed, that I could at least feel nostalgic about the home I was leaving behind. Even if it was too soon.

The harbor ahead, I saw, was lit only to a small extent. From my spot on the shore, I spied some men shuttling about boxes and other things, probably for when the ships came in sooner or later. Spying the boatless dock, I just concluded to hang out on the beach until morning.

--

The next day arrived a bit fast; it was bizarre. But I ignored the feeling and headed up to the dock first thing in the morning. Well, not quite the first thing in the morning. I ducked under for a brief soak in the relentlessly salty water since I figured no one would disturb me there-- they didn't. In hindsight, I likely made myself dirtier, but bathing in the ocean was such a pleasant experience, I'd worry about the horribly dry skin, if any, to come later. Thereafter, I put on some fresh clothes, had a small bite of breakfast, and then started my hike up to the docks where I could still hear some docile hustling and bustling.

"Excuse me, e-excuse me!" I said while climbing up a bank of wooden makeshift steps. I studied one man bark orders every which way at others who hauled the boxes to their respective areas.

I sidled up next to this man and tapped him lightly on the shoulder.

"Excuse me, I was wondering if you could help me?" I asked. "Uh, where exactly does this ship go to?"

Not really halting in his supervision to properly speak to me, he threw his reply back, "This ship sails south over to the east continent, northern shores. Who wants to know? Hey! Watch out over there!"

"Um, I wanted to know if you could take me with you. I'm going there, too," I beamed.

"This ain't a convoy, ma'am."

"But I _have _to get on there. Is there any way I can get on the ship?" I pleaded.

"Well, for one thing, I'm not someone who governs who gets on ships or not. Go talk to one of the captains around here or something, just go away, alright?" The man jostled me away without a second glance, thought or anything of the sort. I stumbled but rapidly regained my footing, snorted at him and then moved on in search of one of these captains.

After a while of fairly mindless wandering and being herded around the harbor for the nuisance I was, I spied some important looking men sitting together in a tatty, temporary little open-air diner. I ushered myself towards the establishment, though unsure of whether it could really be called that. I stood planted at the threshold, ogling everything like a lost tourist. Apparently, all the men sitting in here took immediate notice and stared my way. I did the only thing I could do in a situation like this.

Wave.

I waved. In every direction the probing eyes came from.

When another uncomfortable minute ticked by, I happily announced:

"Uh, anyone in here by chance a captain?"

All encompassing silence.

A few muffled chortles.

A couple of stifled laughs.

One answer.

"We're captains over here, woman," called the one man who bothered to answer me. I sighed in relief and skipped, albeit none too conspicuously, plopping myself right at the man's table where he amongst two others sat. "What are ya wantin' a captain for?"

"I was wondering which of you are going to the eastern continent so that you can take me along, too," I said, smiling. "I'm going there."

They exchanged secret glances between each other then all looked back at me.

"We don't run cruise ships here, woman."

"Uh uh, I, I gathered that… But still, you can take me along, can't you? I'll make it worth your while."

They exchanged yet more glances and tossed in murmurs to boot.

"With money, that is. Money. Gil."

"How much ya willing to part with?" inquired one of the other men who had, until then, yet to speak.

"Um, how about three thousand?" I proffered. "One way trip. Of course, if you want more, I can throw in more."

There came more hushed discussion among the three men. Finally, they broke away and laid all their hardened eyes back on me. "Make it five and we'll talk."

"Uh, okay. It's a nice chunk out of my purse but...I can deal with that."

"Then welcome aboard, little lady."


	5. Chapter 4: Midgar Scars

_**4: Midgar Scars and a Case of Mistaken Identity**_

"_Sometimes, I like to look at other people's eyes. Some are the same as most everybody else's; others are totally different; and...might not be there at all. I'm one of the different ones. When I look at someone's eyes, I smile, I compliment. But when they look at mine, they wonder if something happened to me at birth that messed them up. My eyes can't be bad…can they? They're just like everyone else's, if only...a little mixed up in a way. People are odd." -Drana

* * *

_

_-----  
_

Sailing on a ship was one of the more exciting experiences I'd ever had. Bobbing up and down on the waves of the boundless sea was definitely something to revel in. My stomach liked to dance every other chance it got, but it wasn't really a cause for alarm. Butterflies, just butterflies. Because I practically treaded on pins and needles just waiting for the ship to reach its destination.

I was out at sea for about three days or so; it was hard keeping track of time without a clock. I only knew that when a day was over, the sun would set, and when a day began, the sun rose. If I'd thought of doing so, I would've actively counted the sunrises and sunsets as I whiled my time away standing on the deck. I admired the ocean until I couldn't stand anymore; I was lucky my ankles hadn't swollen to the size of melons. As for the ship itself, the captain was right. It wasn't anything like a cruise ship, or even a slum of a passenger ship. It was a freighter, one of the least comfortable there existed. I was only too grateful that the captain was kind enough to give up his snug sleeping quarters to me. If not, I would've likely had to rough it down below in the hold with the workers.

"Those dregs down there woulda torn ya apart" was what he'd told me.

"Because yer a woman. A woman surrounded by men like that is a sweet, lonely little bird plucked right in the middle of a cat nest. Ya woulda been asking for it. I'm just saving ya the hassle."

Oh the joys of being a woman, I mused, if a bit in unfounded bitterness.

--

It was in the too early hours of the morning, not even dawn, and I stuck to the deck of the ship, spying the land creep up on the horizon. Hour by hour, it would get closer, and hour by hour, my eyes would have to strain to make out a single dark spot that marred it. I wracked my brain hard around it. What could it be? A mountain? Or… Rather, about all I could think of was a mountain. They had a habit of being tall, dark and daunting. But this one seemed different. But, I didn't let my mind stay on it for long.

The ship was about to dock soon. I clung to the starboard guardrail, barely containing myself while it tardily lurched and bobbed into the harbor. Activity picked up behind me with the workers rushing to prepare themselves for their berth and the cargo moving soon to follow.

Finally, we were anchored at the pier and a crane nearby pulled a metal gangplank to the ship's side. The captain and another of his crew emerged from the control room onto the deck. The infinitely important looking man motioned me to come with, and together we stepped off, standing out of the way of the cargo hauling that ensued.

"Well, little lady, yer here, safe and sound, I hope?" asked the man.

"Oh, I am. Thank you so much for putting up with me. Very grateful. I'd… give you a hug but I don't think you… would…" I trailed off into a nervous laugh under my breath. The captain emitted a slight mirthful noise and waved his hand in dismissal.

"Yes, yes, no need fer that. Just your thanks said and some five grand o' gil lining me pocket is all I needed," he said.

"Um...y es. Well, okay, you have a good day," I told him and started to sidle off.

"Hey, wait a sec. The town you might want to be goin' to is Kalm. Get a buggy at the lot further down. They'll drive ya out."

"Oh thanks." As I continued to walk, a notion popped into my head, wheeling me around towards the departing captain. "Um, excuse me, one more thing… Uh, I've been wondering since I was on the ship… What's that dark spot way, way over there?"

"What? That's Midgar."

"Really? So it's still around."

"What's left of it, anyway."

"Oh okay, then. Thank you and goodbye."

I headed down to the lot that the captain noted so that I could hitch a ride to some real civilization. The lot itself was stationed somewhat underneath the docks, guarded over by a lone, little shanty. I passed through the lot, between the six-wheeled vehicles for a brief look at what I was going to be riding in, then on and into the shanty itself. A tall, slim man sat at a counter, gathered around with quite a few others. I was able to squeeze myself into the conversation they had, pressing to get a buggy ride. One of the group, most of whom were buggy drivers, had been nice enough to part with his comrades to take me where I wanted to go. I paid the charge and off we were.

The ride had been bumpy for the most part, something I hadn't totally expected; yet it was something I should have, because as I gazed out of the dirty window from the buggy's rear, the land wasn't all that even, and peering ahead, I saw that it would only get bumpier. And less grassy. And less sunny. And more like a wasteland. Strange. And it'd continue to be strange until I saw what could have been the source of the sudden change in the local scenery.

Midgar.

It had to be Midgar.

For miles and miles from that one dark spot on the earth, the terrain was drained of most life. Drab and gloomy. The sky was just as much affected by the featureless land as anything else. It reflected the doom and gloom almost perfectly, with small patches of sunlight striving to get through, but not faring very well in the endeavor. Birds barely hunted the skies and whatever manners of beast that were supposed to live here on land seemed few and far in between.

I made it a strong point to the driver to take me to Midgar. He wasn't enthused about it but didn't argue. He sped for the city of former poison glory.

* * *

--

Midgar was more imposing upon its surroundings than I'd first imagined. This once largest city in the world was little more than a humongous spread of debris nestled in the center of the lowland. From the western limits of the old destruction, I could see the tops of broken skeletons and cracked shells of buildings reaching for the gray clouds lingering above. Beyond the giant, half crumbled wall that appeared to circle this whole ruined capital, I could only picture in my mind how much more damage there was. I hoped it wasn't much.

The buggy let me out at an enormous hole in the stone wall, next to where a shoddy patchwork house resided. A couple hung around outside, picking about a scrap heap. I blinked at them as I stepped out of the buggy.

"Ma'am, once you go in, I gotta warn ya," the driver said, leaning out from the window. "Don't beat around too much. Some of that mess in there is sorta unstable. People like to pick at the buildings for scrap, old mortar and all that. They're still going about rebuilding things. So yeah, fair warning, watch your head. See ya."

The buggy swerved around in a cloud of dust and took off back north. I was motionless for a minute, letting his words sink in a bit. I inhaled sharply, heaved my shoulders, and then strode right into Midgar's city limits.

"Whoo…" I found myself breathless for but a split moment in time.

The inside of Midgar looked just a tiny bit better than I'd expected it to look. It was still laden with toppled structures and countless mounds of scarred debris. But squeezed between here and there, under this and inside that were quaint little hovels and half restored tenements in which people actually seemed to be living. I was mildly amazed but glad to see people were surviving here after what happened all that long ago.

I scuttled along the dirty streets, careful not to trip or fall into random piles of junk. People communed to the sides, strangely mindful of me whenever I passed. I mostly let it go unnoticed, but deep down, I was curious all the same. I continued within Midgar, strolling wherever I could or found safe to wander through. I'd let my eyes trail up until I saw something rather interesting come into view. However many miles ahead, I perceived a tall, tall tower of a building, twisted and scorched near black. It was one of the more beaten up structures I witnessed here. Doubtless, it had to have been important for something so tall.

I resumed my wandering.

It was only a matter of time before I came upon a less populated area. Fallen beams and mountains of rubble were more plentiful here and faint light beamed down on a slant for a most humongous plate of metal hung overhead, half blotting out the sky. Having seen this made me uneasy but I persevered.

I stumbled onto the presence of a humble looking church. It was one of too few dwellings in the vicinity lucky enough to have sunlight shine down on them. This church inevitably drew me to it.

"Oh!" I gasped aloud.

When I entered, my breath was taken away by the sight of flowers growing here. A flower bed grew right in the heart of the church, with the weak daylight shining down on it from a large hole in the roof. I was dumbfounded. I didn't think it was possible for flowers to live here, what with how dirty and lifeless the soil looked in and around Midgar. Coming face to face with the little garden, I came to the conclusion that it was well cared for, too. I bent down and touched a finger to one of the yellow blossoms.

"So beautiful…" I whispered to myself. "I wonder whose garden this is… I want one just like-"

"Hey."

A hand slapped hard on my shoulder and gripped it tightly. I jumped to my feet with my arms stabbing into the air.

I tried hard not to move. Whoever this was that caught me sneaking around these flowers likely didn't appreciate strangers. And I didn't want to do a thing to provoke him.

"Turn around slowly," said the voice. I gulped hard and nodded, turning slowly on my heels.

Time passed like a begrudging snail.

"D-don't hurt me," I said after another big, fretful gulp. Fully facing my attacker, I found his wrist firmly pressed against my throat which, of course, wasn't comfortable in the least.

"Wait… You… Are you, are you a clone?" asked the man firmly facing me down. The first feature of him I caught was his spiky, sunny blond hair, and then his glowing blue eyes that creepily probed all over me.

"Wh-what's a clone? M-My name's Drana, Drana Donovan," I replied, fidgeting. His grip on me lightened up but stayed unwaveringly where it was.

"Hmm." He released me completely and took a step backward. I hugged myself close, also retreating a step but not too far that I'd accidentally trample the flowers. The man sighed, running a few fingers across his brow. "I'm sorry for that. It's just that you… You don't look common, you know…"

"Y, yes, I get that from time to time," I said in a dodgy tone.

"Yeah, the long gray hair is… pretty exclusive to one person I've met," he explained in a calm, low voice. I saw his eyes narrow as he cocked his head at me. "But the eyes are something else. They don't match…"

"I know, I've seen. Different, rare," I added curtly. "Blue, green..."

"Look, I'm sorry for coming up on you like that. I forget my manners," he uttered kindly, sidling forward. The blond jutted his hand my way and smiled meagerly. "My name's Cloud, er, Cloud Strife."

I leered at him and his gloved hand. Feeling a little less like a victim, I sighed exasperatedly and took it. We shook, though the entire action was on the awkward side. Our hands were almost the same size but his had a strange strength about it.

"Um, charmed to meet you, I'm sure." I laughed nervously.

"So… If you don't mind my asking, what's your business here?" Cloud queried. I shrugged in return, allowing for my actual response to arise a full minute later, at the least.

"I was just... passing through," I divulged with a flit of my hand. "I came to Midgar to see what things were like. I'd heard that this place got attacked by something called Meteor a long time ago."

"Heard? You mean you didn't know about it before? You didn't see it yourself?" A clearly puzzled expression washed over his face, which made me confused as well.

"No… Should I have seen it?" I asked, and I grew fretful for reasons I myself couldn't understand.

The man Cloud said nothing. Forever and a day felt like it passed before he said anything else. He grinned faintly and shook his head. "Well… You're fine, really. It's better that you didn't have to. It's not anything important anymore."

"O-Okay."

Silence descended suddenly. The blond man opposite me shuffled in place a bit, stuffing his hands in his pants' pockets. I'd pivoted back to the garden of yellow flowers and knelt in front of them again, admiring them the way I had before he ambushed me.

"You're really into those flowers," Cloud voiced. I nodded in acknowledgment without facing him. "There's another garden nearby if you want to see that one, too."

"Oh really? Who planted all these flowers, anyway? They're all so beautiful…"

"A friend. A friend we... lost a long time ago planted these. She loved them like they were her children. Some others and I care for them all noq in her stead. One of our ways of keeping her memory alive, you know?"

I couldn't help but smile. This man, among others, was toiling to keep a friend's memory alive through the gardens she left here in Midgar. I was touched. I stroked a blossom petal by petal in contemplation. Almost in the blink of an eye, he went from rude and invasive to somber and caring.

"Mmm…"

"So, anyway, you're welcome to come along to the other garden I mentioned. As an apology, you know... for being so rough earlier. It's not a problem."

"Oh really? I guess I could come along. I'd love to see more flowers…"


	6. Chapter 5: A Little Interlude

_**5: A Little Interlude**_

"_Flowers. I love them; I've always loved them ever since I could remember. I've always wanted my own garden. I couldn't really have that in Icicle. So that's why I left. Well, one of the reasons why I left. You know, other than wanting a garden so badly, I couldn't really say why I wanted to leave there… I never really thought of it, I just went along with it. I should question myself more often." -Drana

* * *

_

_---  
_

I trudged behind Cloud up a cluttered street on which, halfway towards the end, a fallen pillar proved an annoying obstruction. He enlightened me on that for some time now, that debris had a habit of falling over while it was still being cleared out and taken for scrap. He helped me up onto it, stopping for a minute to show me a house at the end of the street that we were following. Another of those metal beams lay propped against one side of the roof that was covered with a black tarp. According to the blond, the damage had been done when Meteor almost fell. It was only a stroke of luck that the house, along with its garden, was tucked into the slums well enough to have escaped the brunt of the storms and brimstone that ravaged Midgar.

Stroke of luck was right.

We hopped down the half shattered pillar and finished our procession to the lonely survivor of a two story house. Cloud went to the door and opened it, knocking at the same time to let whoever was inside know that we were coming in.

"Tifa, I'm back!" he called, and then looked over his shoulder to me. "You can come in, too, if you want."

"Oh no, I couldn't, I'd be intruding…" Patches of yellow to the right caught my eye. This was the other garden he'd been talking about. It sat on two separate levels of earth, like pedestals, surrounded by unpainted picket fences. I shot Cloud a look.

"Oh yeah. That's the other garden, as you can already see. It looks a little uneven in places; some of the flowers didn't last as long through the destruction as we would've liked, but most of it's still intact and that's all that matters. Well… I'll be inside if you need to ask me anything. Excuse me."

"Okay." I went around the house and up the little out-of-the-way footbridge that led into the garden. Just like before, these flowers were also well cared for, well, apart from the dark, bare patches. I dropped my bag at my feet and lowered myself to my knees to better glimpse all the blossoms. "Mm…"

--

"So how was it, Cloud?" asked the chesty brunette standing across from him. He shrugged and sidestepped her to the window.

"It was fine. Nobody's bothered it since we left a couple days ago. But…"

"But what?"

"When I came in, I found this strange woman. C'mere, Tifa, take a look," Cloud advised. She walked on over beside him and leaned towards the pane to see what he was pointing at. Her head jerked back in mild astonishment.

"Whoa, where did she come from?"

"I hadn't asked. But don't you think it's strange that she looks like that? With the gray hair and everything? I asked her if she was a clone," Cloud said. Tifa laid a hand on his shoulder, slightly baffled.

"You mean like a Sephiroth clone? And what did she say?"

"She doesn't seem to know what they are, but she could be lying." He frowned, pushing away from the window. Brown and blue eyes locked together in reflection then went back to peering outside.

"What's she doing out in the garden?" Tifa voiced.

"I brought her here. After practically attacking her in the church, I had to find some way of apologizing, and she seemed so into the flowers so… There she is." Cloud waved his hand glibly and reclined against the table situated behind him.

"She likes flowers? Hmm… You know, I was just thinking… You think it could've been possible that Sephiroth had some family tucked away somewhere, or something?" The woman's suggestion towards family made Cloud laugh scornfully and fiddle with his gloves.

"I doubt it, Tifa," he replied.

"Are you sure? I mean it's possible, it could be possible," she pressed.

"Still… I doubt it. There's obviously only ever been documents on Sephiroth. If he did have family, then it's a no-brainer that there would've been something, just _something,_ recorded on them. Wouldn't you think so?"

The brunette fell silent, holding her arms in each other.

"I guess so…" She sighed suddenly and stretched her arms up and out behind her. "Well, Cloud, I guess I'll go look for Barret and Nanaki, see how they're holding up."

"Alright. But we'll be heading out in a bit so don't be too long," he divulged.

"Okay. Back in a few."

Soon, Tifa was gone, leaving Cloud to consider things a bit more. He inclined his body back to the window and stared long and hard enough that his eyes began to strain more than needed.

"… who is this woman?"


	7. Chapter 6: From Below, Come Above

_**6: From Below, Come Above  
**_

"_You know, I do feel kinda ashamed not knowing what Meteor was. People either thought I was totally crazy not to know, or I had amnesia. Now, what worth is amnesia if I didn't have a memory to begin with? A memory about Meteor... I can't say I'm crazy, either. Then again, crazy is subjective, isn't it? So… maybe I am crazy and that's the reason I didn't know about Meteor? Hmm…" -Drana

* * *

_

_-----  
_

I huddled amongst the ample yellow blossoms that filled this garden. It gave me hope that one day I'd have a garden exactly like this, if not bigger. A garden that I would have given as much love and care for as the one who first planted here did. My dream. I bit my lower lip and smiled down at the flowers, poking a finger here and there at the little blooms. This place seemed a piece of paradise tucked away in these ruined slums. It made me want to stay in this spot forever.

Humming.

Low and kind of melodious.

I shuffled closer to the flowers in my hunched position, my hands pressed against the tightly packed earth. I had to wonder why, like in the church, plants were able to grow in such a desolate place, a land with little to no hope for green or any other color beyond the shades of gray and scorched, lifeless browns. Maybe it was all little more than one of those miracles people talked about, something unexplained but utterly wonderful that happened and would bring a person to their knees in seconds.

The humming was clearer now, more pronounced, but still soft on the ears.

"Hm…" I took another shuffle along the flower bed's edge.

That once meek sound began to bloat and expand from wherever its source was hidden. Like water pouring into a glass, this hum crashed into and around itself, beating against my ears. I winced, cupping my palms over my ears to drive away that strange noise. But it was useless.

"Ugh, what is that…?" I scanned the garden all around me. There was nothing here, nothing out of the ordinary, save for me.

_"Wrong. You are not alone…"_

"Huh?"

_"But… Who are you and… what are you? Where I feel you, I feel myself. But that makes little sense… because only I am myself… So, who are you…?"_

"Who's there?" I hunkered close to the ground, wary of the deep and mysterious voice. Where did it come from?

_"Wait, you're more than I… Are you evolved? Are you Cetra?"_

"What are you talking about?" I asked. "What's going on?"

No answer. At least, not to my questions, there came no answer.

_"I must ponder this… You brought me back and I must… ponder. This. I thought I had been completely diffused but now… here I am. Why? Why am I here? You will give me answers…"_

"What-- Aaah!"

I felt a sudden tug on my hair which forced me to fall backwards. Startled, I tried to struggle onto my knees but whatever had such a powerful hold on me only drew harder. I could feel some strands of hair wanting to break free from my scalp but not just yet; they would have rather shoot pins of pain through my skull before that was done.

My shoulder blades slammed hard against the rocky soil. The ground was unusually warm, as if something had been lying here before me.

"Please…"

A lead-like pressure fell over my chest, further pinning me to the ground. My heart battered my ribs so that they throbbed like a pounding beast. Stars flickered to life in my eyes. Would this be the end of me? For now my life suddenly felt so, so brief.

My flesh started to contract firmly in on itself; it was like I was being crushed. My legs whittled away to nothing more than petrified twigs, my body slowly becoming like rock. All that was free were my arms and head. I begged to be free. I didn't want to die. Soon, I couldn't breathe. My throat was being crushed too, so much that air could not, would not, come or go.

"Help… me…"

And black.

* * *

--

The morning was quiet and sluggish, save for the occasional frozen breeze that rushed between and rattled the roof's shingles. The windows, though, were near impervious to the winter clime, and thus I could sleep without a care.

"Drana!"

These fur comforters one of the neighbors had supplied me with were like clouds as I slept bundled among them. As were the feather down pillows somewhat a delight, although the down inside was from monsters' pelts, they sometimes felt lumpy, too.

"Hey!"

There was a rapping on my window that persisted with vengeance. I groaned and turned over, but I tried not to pay it any general mind. It wasn't time for me to wake up, not just yet.

"I thought grown ups _weren't _supposed to be lazy… Drana, get up!"

"Geez," I mumbled into my pillow. "What's going on out there...?" Eventually, I roused myself from bed, propping myself on the edge and rubbing at my eyes a little less than furiously. I squinted about my room in slight, slight confusion, and then glowered at my window where a pair of muddled shadows hovered intently behind the closed curtains.

I wiggled my feet into some slippers, then dragged towards the window. As I reached for the curtains to draw them back, I caught the slight shuffling of a strange light beyond. Was it yellow? Or green? It was certainly not the usual brilliant white that reflected off the snow-covered ground outside. It was something else... but what?

"What's going on out there?" I carefully pulled the curtains to one side, where there came flooding to my eyes a bright green light and a pair of round, half-hidden faces pressed against the frosty glass. "Wh-what is this?"

"Drana! Hurry outside, quick!" said one of the children, whom had awakened me from bed.

"Erm..."

Concern had stricken me fast. As I got dressed, I couldn't help but feel a sort of dread pecking at my skin. Or perhaps dread was too harsh a word to use. The only thing I felt was certain was the constant turning of my stomach. What did it really mean...?

I hustled my way outside into the morning tundra air to see what the fuss was about, as well as finding out where that green light was coming from. I left my doorstep, spying other denizens of Icicle wandering confusedly out of sight somewhere behind and beyond my house. My only choice was to follow suit.

"Drana! There you are, c'mon, don't be so slow!" called a voice, which was promptly succeeded by the heavily bundled up figure of a child running my way.

"Kale... Mind filling me in?" I asked listlessly.

"Just come and see for yourself!" The boy snatched my hand up with surprising force and began to pull me in the direction of the light.

A crowd had gathered, blocking my initial view of the spectacle. But once I came closer…

I gasped.

It was something the likes of which I'd never seen. And it made my stomach flip tenfold. The snow-blanketed earth was alive with emerald light. It crept around and beneath people's feet, and even seemed to seek shelter under a neighbor's nearby house. Children attempted to dig through the snow to the light's source but were dragged away by parents, sporting mortified looks on their faces. It was all so curious, and even a little frightening. I still could not grasp what was going on.

"Um, Kale... I don't get it."

"Why are you always so clueless, Drana? Don'tcha see? It's Lifestream," the boy told me, pointing vigorously at the ground. I stared blankly, and then got on my knees to feel at the earth with my own fingertips. It was, of course, cool and crunchy to the touch, but apart from that, there was a tingling very unlike frostbite. It felt very familiar. Somehow.

"Lifestream… the planet's blood, right?" I muttered. "I thought it was all supposed to be underground... you know, towards the center."

"Sometimes too much gets stuck in one place and it glows through the ground. Like this. And in other places, you can even see big pools of Lifestream. But you gotta be careful. If you hang around it too much, or fall in, you'll get sick, maybe even die. That's called Mako poisoning. Got it, Drana?"

"I guess so…" I continued feeling at the glowing green snow. Lifestream? Mako poisoning? Dying? It was a tad hard to understand, but I knew sooner or later, it would all become crystal clear. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Kale asked.

"The ground's talking. But I can't quite make it out..."

"Whaaa? Oh no, maybe the Lifestream's making you hear weird things. It could be poisoning you already..."

"Kale! C'mere!"

"Be right back, Drana. Hey Bon, what's up?"

"You're so strange. How can I hear what you're saying... though most of it's in a whisper I can't make out… Are you teasing me? Who is this, really...? Oh, are you the Planet? Can Planets really speak?"

"I think Drana's gone funny in the head..."

* * *

--

* * *

"Huh...? No…I haven't... You guys… stop being funny…"

An angry vibration rumbled under me for but an instant. The snow turned to a hard, dry surface. How did this come to be? But then, I remembered. I was no longer in Icicle but someplace completely different. I'd left my hometown, and had only been gone a short time so far. And when I did, things began to go wrong, things began to get tough. Things became real, however a lot of it felt so surreal with ghosts and strange men with bright blue eyes and giant swords and so much more. Oh, so much more.

What else? I thought.

Being eaten by the ground should have been first to enter my mind as one of those things going wrong, or the product of an imagination gone insane. And then, there would come the ghosts and weird men wielding strange weapons and…

"Wake up."

A notion struck me. So, of course, getting swallowed up by the ground was the Planet's doing, this oh so mischievous Planet. It was toying with me, who and whatever it was. It finally came for me after all this time. Scheming and calculating under my feet, waiting for the day to arrive so it could take me away and no one would ever heed my disappearance. What a clever Planet it was.

"I know you can hear me. Wake up now. I will not ask again..."

"Silly Planet... or whoever you are… Just because you ate me… doesn't mean it's over yet…" I lifted a hand towards the black space. My fingers fell on something obviously not very Planetlike. It was far too soft, and yet, solid as stone and only half as cold. The cold felt as if it could burn me, though, in reprimand for putting my hand where it didn't belong. But I allowed it to wander. A wall made of soft but firm stone, was it? A round wall...

A wall... with a knee?

"What is this...?"

"Groping my thigh will get you nowhere fast."

"What..."

"Open your eyes, fool." The collar of my blouse tightened suddenly around my throat as I began to float off the ground, or whatever I had been lying on. I groaned in dizziness and discomfort, the darkness that blinded my eyes throbbing powerfully. My eyes, were they not open? How couldn't I tell? It was so odd. Whatever happened, it knocked me out good, and I was almost embarrassed about my behavior.

"Ungh..." I squeezed my eyes tight and they let out a sighing ache in return. Slowly I started to open them which, to my surprise, was even more of a relief than keeping them closed. It was like breathing in the season of spring. So to speak.

A dark green vapor crusted over the widening slits of my eyes, then gradually faded away as soon as it appeared. In its place, there stood a man. It was interesting that he stood a full head below me. But I wasn't that tall, I wasn't tall at all. Why did that matter? It didn't. What really grabbed the attention of my weak and groggy eyes were the illuminant green catlike eyes staring right back at me. Unmoved, unfeeling. Un... everything in general. These words felt familiar forming in my head, like I'd used them before… for the exact same person.

"Y-you're… that ghost from the Knowlespole," I said in a slight whimper. The man didn't even so much as blink at my recognition of him. My collar started to cut deeply into the back of my neck. It most uncomfortable, bordering on excruciating, but I didn't dare ask my captor to be a little gentler.

Still, he said nothing.

"Who... who are you? What do you want with me? Let me go… please?" I pleaded with a trembling, fearful smile.

"I should ask you the same questions. Who are _you_? What do _you _want with me? Let _ME _go," he echoed coldly. I struggled, closing my eyes again.

"Don't hurt me, I haven't done anything... anything wrong..."

"Lies. You did something, and that's the reason I'm here now."

"Are you... that thing people call death? Are you the Planet? You've come to take me away? But... I don't want to go yet... It's not my time." Tears dared to well up in the corner of my eyes. I tried so hard to keep them in. I couldn't let this menacing man see them.

"I am not the Planet, but I can just as easily be your death if you don't tell me what's going on. Now," the man replied sternly. I sniffled and bit my lip.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I told him. His grip tightened on my collar in response. I gagged and coughed.

"I think you do. Humans, so full of lies, lies to yourselves and others. Shameful, really."

"I'm telling the truth… Believe me or don't believe me, it's your choice," I groaned.

"Fine. I don't."

The green-eyed man pulled my collar so close around my throat that I could no longer breathe a single breath. The tears were forced instantle out of my burning eyes. I struggled as much as I could to get free, but it was no use. With no air to aid me, my effort was futile in the simplest sense. My ears rang hollowly, a sign that my head was growing very, very light. A delicate whispering "Sweet dreams" made its final destination to me. A kind, yet ironic parting gift.


	8. Chapter 7: Safer Savior

_**7: Safer Savior**_

_"You know, monsters are peculiar. Like… where did they come from? Why are they almost always hostile to people? Do we have something they envy? Hmm. It's not like we're beings so mystical and marvelous that we should inspire even white-hot hatred in them... or wait, maybe that's the wrong thing to say. There's a lot of hate, and not just from monsters. People do that to themselves, too. It's kinda interesting that we're not so different after all." -Drana

* * *

_

_-----  
_

Death was a whole lot different than I thought it would be from what I heard. Sure, it was painful in the beginning, but eventually, everything would turn calm. And that calm would feel pretty good. Those people were right. The floor could have been better and I would have liked more lights, but if this was as good as it was going to get, I couldn't really complain. So I just lay there, and basked in my death.

How all the bad things culminated into this one single event was sort of astounding. It made me wonder that, if I knew my leaving the sweet comfort of Icicle would lead me here to this all-enfolding darkness, I'd have stayed inside and just slept the day away until the next, and the next after that, and the next after that one. But what a fine predicament I had gotten myself into with dying. Yet, I had to admit that Death was handsome for a killer. Though, he persisted to boggle my mind with how much we looked alike, almost like brother and sister. If we being siblings had been the truth, what a mean brother he was for killing me.

I chuckled softly to myself because, in a way, it was funny. Would I really only have this kind of luck?

"Oh no..." My death grumbled and chirruped at me. It didn't exactly sound like the most cheerful of deathly noises, either.

My body rose up like it was possessed. The darkness formed rather distinctively creepy sad and blank faces, sported the most vacant round eyes imaginable, like fish eyes. Those faces bent down to curiously lick at my skin and clothes with long, slimy reptilian tongues.

"Go away," I said agitatedly to the faces. "You're ruining my death…"

With that, they spontaneously exploded back into the darkness, splashing my face with something as pitch black as death was, but so much more bitter to the taste as it got in my mouth.

I collapsed back to the floor, alongside a giant clump of blackness dislodged from the rest that bounced and fell right on top of me. I moaned in annoyance. Death can not be this busy, I thought to myself.

"I can't even leave you alone for a minute…" The big, dark mass on top of me rocked from side to side before completely sliding off. I coughed and slowly rose to my knees.

"I'm... not dead?"

The voice that spoke sighed exhaustedly. "You seem to have very little understanding of what death really is."

"I guess so... but more importantly: what is this on my face?" I opened my eyes and stared up at the man standing over me, who appeared to be dressed in nothing more than a black sheet that was tied around his hips, leaving him bare to the waist. I blinked then felt at my face. There was a warm, heavy stickiness clinging to it, and when I pulled my hand away, I finally saw what it was. It was dark like oil but a bit more bluish. "Eww, what is this...? Is it... blood?"

I tilted my head questioningly to my right where there lay a large gray thing. A corpse. It was a monster, that much was apparent; but it was one I never saw before. It had two heads, though they were slashed beyond recognition, and possessed lanky limbs that were sprawled in weird directions from its body, like a broken marionette.

"Did you do this? Did you kill that monster?" I asked the long-haired man. He gave no answer. Instead, he only glared at me with a force that made my skin crawl. "T-thank you for saving me…"

I nodded my thanks as well, but he only scoffed. I frowned darkly at the odd man, put off by his ugly demeanor. He was so unpleasant and intimidating; I couldn't bear to suffer his company anymore. I wanted to leave, and soon.

"You know... I see now, you're a terrible person. I don't want to be here," I hissed. I scrambled to my feet and made a mad dash for anywhere but here. My clumsy escape sent me winging by tall floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, clipping old dusty tomes with my shoulder and knocking them onto the floor.

"You won't get far."

--

"Really, what do you want from me? Why won't you let me go?" I cried as I was pinned on my face to the cold, stony ground. The man had my torso crushed beneath one of his knees and a steely hand pressed to the side of my head, almost completely immobilizing me.

"You have answers to questions I seek," he said.

"But I don't know anything. I don't even know you."

"Number one: Who are you?" he asked me.

"I'm just, just a simple woman from Icicle," I exclaimed. "I'm really no one special, believe me..."

"I want a name."

"Drana Donovan, okay? Drana. Donovan… my name."

"... number two: Why did you bring me back to life? And how?"

"Bring you back to life? What are you talking about? I can't do anything like that."

"Your face was the first and only thing I saw as I rose out of the Lifestream. If you didn't do it yourself, regardless of what you say, you had some part in it."

"You can't be serious..."

"Lastly, number three: _What _are you?"

"What am I? What kind of question is that? It's obvious that I'm a... a human."

"And that, that is where the true lie begins."

The man released me from his pin, looming above me like a limestone sentinel. I stared at him in total bewilderment. It was the craziest accusation I'd ever heard, ever, and a pretty insulting one at that. I jumped to my feet, my gaze burning in anger.

"If there's anyone between us that isn't human, it's _you_!" I snapped.

"I wonder if Shinra would have any documents on anything like you... I doubt even Hojo would have passed you up."

"Go away!" I barked at the man and twirled to make another attempt at escape. But before my left foot even left the ground, an arm hooked around my neck. He reeled me back, smashing me against him in another inescapable hold. I scratched and pulled at his arm but nothing made him flinch. So I gave up. I hung there like a rag doll, defeated but only for the moment. The battle was lost, but the war was far from over.

"I must put you somewhere for safekeeping... until I know everything..."


	9. Chapter 8: Skeletons

_**8: Skeletons in the Basement**_

_"It's amazing, the things secrets can do when you give them the chance. They can destroy, they can create, they can do lots of things. It's like the power of gods in the form of a few key words. But wait, aren't all words like that? They have the power do to anything, invoke anything, in the masses or the individual... Words are amazing things." -Drana

* * *

_

_-----  
_

The man returned me to the room from which I'd escaped not moments ago. In actually taking the time to examine this place, it looked like someone's personal library, except it had apparently been abandoned for years. The atmosphere was dusty and decrepit, with the lighting of a tomb. I'd also noticed that not only books occupied this space but strange instruments, too. In particular, two giant, mold covered tubes stood like a lonely couple in the farthest corner of the room. And it was to these that my captor brought me, tossed me into one, and shut the door. He casually snapped closed the old and crusted, but still sturdy locks.

"This is really unnecessary, you know..." I began to say.

"Anything you say won't help you," the man told me with a brilliant glare. I cringed then bundled myself into a little ball against the opposite side of the tube. Though it wasn't much, the distance I put between us gave me a fairly soothing illusion of detachment from this tubular prison.

"Humph..."

"Behave and you might see better treatment." The gray-haired man twisted away and started for the door. I sat up and smacked myself against the thick glass in shock.

"You're leaving me here like this?" I cried. "That's not very kind of you!"

He stopped for a minute. Then he shrugged and departed in silence.

"Ugh, I'd rather have actually died than stay here like this..."

--

A few hours passed with no sign of my captor returning. I was bored out of my skull and less than physically disturbed by the odor that clung to the inside of the tube I was confined to. It reeked of something rancid and inhuman.

I rapped on the glass, however not much noise was emitted because of how thick it was. Despite that, I kept on doing it. It had to be possible that somebody else would be present in or around wherever I was, so they were bound to hear it sooner or later. _This can't be in vain_, I thought. My imprisonment was unfair and I had to find a way to get my freedom back. And I was sure that there had to be someone out there who would be generous enough to help me.

After about ten or so minutes of rapping my fist on the glass, my arm grew tired. But as my fingers left the surface of the glass, I heard something, a creaking.

It was the door.

It was being opened.

I perked, though not enough to be noticed by anyone outside myself. I watched the door slowly creep ajar where I could see past it into the dark stony corridor. There was no one there. But then, how could the door have opened? A breeze? Or something more? I glanced up and down and all around the room. I saw no other signs of life, except maybe a mouse scuttling about aimlessly. It boggled my mind. I sat back in my prison and mulled over this odd, little event.

I blinked.

"Oh!"

The strange and abrupt appearance of an even stranger man propelled me back against the glass. Would he be friend or foe? I pondered. Of course, I had hoped for him to be a friend but his exterior proved not tht welcoming. He was clothed in red and black; there was not to mention his exhausted look from years of enduring violence that was only just beginning to fade. Another clue that lent to him not being a typical law abiding citizen of the Planet was the large gun holstered to his right thigh and a gold claw-like object over his left arm. His deep mahogany eyes peered at me from between a shroud of long, jet hair and a very high collar on the ragged cape he wore.

The man approached the tube and dropped his somber eyes on me.

"H-hello? Can you help me?" I pleaded. His cold expression then phased into complete question. As did mine, for I had to wonder what he was doing down here, but I couldn't contend this wild stroke of good luck. I needed desperately to get out of here.

"How did you get in there?" he asked in a low rumble of a voice.

"This man that kind of looks like me locked me up for some reason. Please let me out."

"I thought all of Sephiroth's clones were dead... So, Jenova must've let one slip from the Reunion..."

"Huh? Sephiroth...? Jenova? Is Sephiroth the name of the man that put me in here? Or Jenova...? Ugh, you know, you're not the only one that mentioned something about clones to me. There was this funny blond guy, too..." I hugged myself in contemplation. I was so utterly lost, especially by the word 'clone' that had arisen once again. What did it mean and what did it have to do with me, if anything at all?

"You said there was a man that looked like you..." This shady looking man let his face fall to an angle to where I couldn't see it. The sharp capped fingers of the claw on his arm drummed noisily against each other, a slow and stiff motion that irked me.

"Yes, yes he does… I didn't deserve this, you know? I've done nothing wrong, honest. Please, just please get me out of here before he comes back," I squeaked, beating on the glass. The man looked straight down at me again, but this time, with maybe just a tinge of sympathy to his hardened eyes.

"...your eyes don't seem like the lying type... Then again... were his, too?"

"I... I don't understand. But please help me, hurry," I said anxiously.

"You'd have to come with me. Feel like trading one's custody for another?"

"As long as you're not going to lock me up too, that's fine," I said.

The man lifted his clawed fingers to the locks on the tube's access and flicked them leisurely at each one. They popped and the door unhurriedly swung open. I jumped out and tumbled to the floor at his feet, elated to be free of that ridiculous thing.

"Thank you, you don't know how much this means to me," I told him in an over joyous tone and continuous bowing of my head.

"You don't know how much this means to me, either," a voice called.

We both looked up and towards the open door that led here into this chamber.

It was that gray haired man, my captor, that stood there. His muscular body was poised, a hand gripping the old door frame as if he wanted to snap it. I feared a fight would break out. It was the last thing I wanted to happen here.

"Oh no, it's-"

"Sephiroth," said the darkly dressed man in front of me.

"Huh?"

"Hmm? Do I know you?" questioned the other, suspiciously.

"You should, you should know me very well. Because I helped kill you."

"... so you did, did you? But, as you can see now, all your past effort has gone to waste. Thanks to her. I hope you gave that woman very many thanks for bringing me back and making that happen..." Sephiroth, as the other had fitfully called him, pointed a slender finger at me and grinned ever so faintly. As far as I could tell, he knew what he said would strike a cord in the man who freed me. And it was true, for he had twisted towards me with a face of overwhelming surprise that looked so out of place. I was speechless.

"He... he's lying! I didn't do anything, I swear!" I exclaimed.

"You brought Sephiroth back…? How?"

"Yes, please tell him. I'd like to hear this, myself."

My body began to throb crazily in this single moment. My limbs froze completely as I was placed under this overpowering spotlight by both men steadily eying me down like I was some sort of criminal. I could barely move, talk, or think. How could I have brought someone back to life? Was what Sephiroth said about me true? Was I not human, and in that statement, lied the reason I had some special ability that resurrected people? How could that have not made me human? I thought. It befuddled me to no end, and I wanted it to stop. I wanted the confusion to stop. I wanted the questioning of my humanity to stop. I wanted this all to stop.

"Like a little child."

"Speak for yourself, Sephiroth," the man remarked succinctly.

"I don't have time to waste on you anymore, whoever you are," Sephiroth snorted.

"Vincent. Vincent Valentine."

"Mr. Valentine, I suggest you go now and leave the woman to me," announced the cat-eyed man.

"Actually, she decided against that..."

"Tough luck for her." Sephiroth lifted a stiff, straight hand at Vincent. Into his palm he called an eerie force that started to rip through this small room and all its forgotten possessions. The caped man withdrew his gun from its holster, a mean looking, double-barreled thing and aimed it into the turbulence.

Click.

Boom.

Flash.

I saw a white light trying to burn its way into my eyes and body. An arm reached past the light and took hold of me, drawing me off my feet. I felt as if I were flying without wings. For a second, it was a wonderful and exhilarating feeling, but then it melted away to dread. The arm was only Sephiroth and he was taking me away. But where to next, I had no clue. And for that instant, I didn't care.

A funny thought occurred to me. The paling radiance from the clashing of force on force clung to my captor's skin, making him all aglow, perhaps like what people called angels. A distant angel that I had somehow roused from the depths of the Planet. But obvious as it was, it was only looks that gave this impression; his demeanor gave another.

Sephiroth ran with unusual vigor, hardly bothered by the extra weight that was I, tucked precariously under his arm. In our rapid getaway, I wondered what happened to the man that called himself Vincent. I thought, surely he couldn't have been taken down by that light. He felt stronger than that. But that was just my belief and mine only. But I had then seen that I'd spoken too soon of him.

In a flurry of roiling blood red, Vincent appeared before us in the rocky corridor, brandishing his revolver with great severity. But in his face, I saw almost perfect control.

"Stop," he commanded. Sephiroth skidded to a halt on his bare feet, causing a few stray rocks to skitter out before him. "I'm afraid I can't let you leave. So, Sephiroth... What do you plan on doing with that woman?"

"I'm afraid that's none of your business, Mr. Valentine," he said in a scoff.

"I'm afraid it is." Vincent cocked the chamber of his gun open, inserted something into it, and then jolted it back into place. He aimed it our way once more. "You aren't famous for having good intentions. I think you know what I'm talking about…"

"Of course. You wouldn't have understood. No one would have, except for one that would have mattered… Mother…" Sephiroth took a light step forward, knowingly risking a shot from Vincent's revolver. I squirmed and whimpered nervously in his arm as he did.

The other responded accordingly to this action. His thumb pulled the hammer back, and he readied his index finger on the trigger.

"You can't hurt me," Sephiroth told him.

"Can't I? Let's see..."

"Not while I have this woman. Would you really hurt her just to get to me?" He drew me in front of him like a shield. I yelped, struggling to stay on my feet, though he kept holding me as if I didn't need to. Vincent's gun lowered a bit, but then instantly returned to its original position.

"Is that really your style, Sephiroth? Using an innocent as a meat shield?"

"Irrelevant." Sephiroth bounded forward. But right then, he had stopped just a foot short of Vincent's barrel, which cracked to life, sparks, and searing heat. But the deadly emission hadn't touched either of us, for we both soared over the gunman's head and landed a few feet behind him. My captor sprinted for a staircase that appeared to spiral upwards through a well. Rather than taking the steps one at a time, he leapt up through the shaft from one half-ring of the spiral to another until he reached a large, square hole in the wall. It was blocked by stone, which he pushed aside with ease, and ducked into it before it quickly shut again.

I was in a bit of shock by Sephiroth's actions, having almost been shot to pieces alongside him. But the superhuman strength of his legs saved us from harm. I was relieved, but disconcerted. Who was he, or who had he been to have possessed such power? Or was it something else entirely that was the source of his strength? For the time being, I had to put these notions on the backburner. Even if I didn't, the bouncing that I endured under my captor's arm would've knocked it all out of my head, instead.

"You know, you're giving me more trouble than you're worth, woman," he told me in a huff.

"You kidnapped me, what do you expect?!"


	10. Chapter 9: Confusion

_**9: Confusion and Enlightenment**_

_"…dilly-dally shilly-shally?" -Drana

* * *

_

_---  
_

"So, how's Reeve doing with his WRO operations?"

"Things're actually running kind of smoothly. He's down here in Midgar, helping with the salvage crews right now."

"I wonder if I should go lend a hand."

"Yeah, well, more like we should just be getting back to town. I want to check in on Marlene and Denzel. And you oughta check if there are any new orders for delivery. Can't have business getting neglected already, you know."

"Oh yeah…"

Tifa made her way out of the ruined church, effortlessly scooping up a large satchel along the way. Cloud remained behind for a few moments to pore over the little garden that nested there. Then, as he turned to leave, he heard a ring emanate from his pants' pocket. He withdrew the mobile phone from within and flicked it open.

"... Vincent's calling? This is a surprise," he said to himself. He pressed a button and lifted it to his ear. "What's up?"

"Cloud?" Tifa called from afar. He nodded once at the woman and gestured to the phone in his hand. She fell into a hush afterwards.

"So, what's the news...?"

An inevitable pause came.

"Waitwaitwait. Run that by me again?"

"Cloud..." Tifa whispered, with a concerned look on her soft, round face.

"You can't be serious... And... wait, what woman? ... _That _woman? This can't be a coincidence... How do I know about her? Well, we met here in Midgar…"

"What's going on?"

"Hold on, Vincent..." Cloud dropped the phone from his ear, covering its lower half with a gloved hand. He leant towards Tifa with a most serious expression on his face and uttered, "This is… unreal. And I think, no matter how you look at it, it's bad news."

"What's bad news?" Tifa's large brown eyes grew wider.

"Sephiroth's alive."

"What?!"

"And you remember that strange woman I came across a few days ago, that looked like a dead ringer for a clone? She's been taken by Sephiroth," Cloud explained rather carefully. His eyes darted across the decrepit floorboards before looking back up and continuing with what he was saying. "I have no idea what this means... Vincent's confused, too. But any way you look at it... it's not good, Tifa."

"Impossible," Tifa mouthed in disbelief. "You said it was over. Cloud, it was all supposed to be over, right? He can't be alive."

"I'm as shocked as you are. But… my eyes… our eyes didn't lie. Sephiroth _did _die that day in the crater... But now... how could he have come back?"

* * *

--

* * *

"Alright, Cloud. I'll keep a look out."

Vincent snapped his phone closed and shoved it slowly into the bottom of his holster. He sat perched atop the water tower in the center of the town of Nibelheim, gazing to the northwest over the horizon of houses. Shinra Mansion stood on a lonely hill just a few miles beyond, almost on the outer brink of town. The structure's infectious decadence crept outward onto the land and Nibelheim itself, despite that the town in its present state was only eight years young or so, brought back from destruction to cover up terrible, past incidents.

"Once a tainted land, always a tainted land..." Vincent sighed and stood up from the edge of the tower's scaffold. He leapt down with ghostly poise, not unlike that of a diving bird. The gunman's frayed red cape fluttered into stillness as he landed silently upon the ground. He sighed once more and began a slow trek to the abandoned mansion.

_This is no coincidence, like Cloud said_, Vincent pondered. _That woman is connected to Sephiroth in more ways than a simple kidnapping. And Sephiroth's words only further solidify the fact. I have to find out who that woman is and what she's capable of. If I know Shinra, there's little doubt that they would have info on her..._

_--_

_From Sixth: At this point in time (which I can no longer remember), I have 'successfully' completed Dirge of Cerberus. Somewhere along the lines, I may insert some elements here and there from the game. Or not. And apologies for submitting this late, I felt I hit a slight wall in later chapters that I'd been preparing. I think I'm back on track, now. Because this is something I DO want to finish, regardless if it might not be up to par or not._

_Thank you._


	11. Chapter 10: Assumption

_**10: The Assumption**_

_"I think I've heard of Shinra before. They came along with the pretense of wanting to make everyone's lives better but...I guess they were just in it for the money...and power, too. And also, what they did hurt the Planet and its people. It made me sad to hear that. The Planet didn't deserve that. Because it gave us life, it gave us everything. It's…like they say: Don't bite the hand that feeds you." -Drana

* * *

_

_-----  
_

"We're going to the Mako reactor atop Mt. Nibel. The facilities there should aid... our search, even if it's minimal."

Sephiroth's arm never seemed to tire as he carried me up a long and winding stone path. My belly began to ache from his shoulder pressing into it. I loathed being hauled around like a child that hadn't yet learned to walk on its own two feet. In random fits of annoyance, admittedly like a kid would do, I pounded my fists on his back and kneed his ribs but he hardly flinched from my abuse. He merely asserted simple, 'minor' threats, such as throwing me off the side of the path into the jagged chasms below if I persisted in resisting. I restrained myself after that. He not once sounded like he was bluffing and I didn't want to see how far over the line I could go before he truly acted on his words.

These mountains, Nibel, as my captor called them, looked like a grim bunch of crooked, death-tipped pikes scarily reaching for the sky. Compared to the odd little hamlet at these mountains' feet, it was a befitting appearance they flaunted. They looked as if they could swallow up anything and everything and never think once about spitting it back out. Instantly, I cringed. The threats Sephiroth made appeared all the scarier now. I didn't want to be tossed to and swallowed up by these mountains. I came here with a life; I wanted to leave with one, too.

"Ugh… is carrying me like this fun for you? Or a chore?" I asked at random. I felt his shoulder shrug beneath me.

"Neither."

The winding path he followed finally straightened out onto the course of a steely bridge that curved upward between and beyond a pair of low, gloomy peaks. Under his armpit, I saw the sharp ascent of the bridge; the whole thing looked insanely unsafe, despite the metal, and I pegged this man as equally insane were it his intention to cross the thing.

"You're… not seriously thinking of walking that thing, are you?"

"I've crossed it once before," Sephiroth said in an eerily hushed tone. A shiver clawed its way up my spine as he started to traverse the bridge. An occasional breeze would make it groan and quiver. I tried my hardest not to move, bundling myself close about Sephiroth's shoulder, in spite of my desire to be as far away from him as possible.

He sighed.

"Women…"

--

Sephiroth had taken his sweet time in crossing the bridge to the other side. It felt like hours had passed by while I was clamped tightly to his shoulder. My muscles ached from straining so hard; it was when I began to sense truly solid movement again that I relaxed my body. I hoped that, from then on, the worst of these mountains had passed.

Our journey through Nibel continued, with paths leading into the great bulks of the peaks themselves. A terrible old stench lingered along the stony walls and on the weak mountain gales, like something recovering from the edge of death. From what I gathered, this Mt. Nibel not only looked like a loss of life but smelled like it, too. Obviously.

As if my mind was like an open book:

"What you smell is Mako, or what's left of it here," the man uttered. "The reactor had been sucking at this land like a leech for quite some time…"

I let my eyes roll up and down the steep faces of these two particular peaks we gradually circled until we reached one of the larger cave mouths that lay sparsely scattered about. The Mako smell was more powerful coming from here, causing my nose to pinch in revulsion. "This is terrible…"

Sephiroth gave no response. We entered the cave, although on the wary side. The sound of trickling water echoed off the cold, high walls mixed with the colors of dirty red, blue and green. The stone had been fashioned into odd distorted shapes over the passage of time, giving the atmosphere a somewhat wraithlike quality.

For a brief moment, I felt like falling asleep. The boredom of being carried like luggage was getting to me and I pined for some sort of escape, even if it was only temporary. My eyes lulled and parts of my body steadily grew numb. Rather than hopeless, things grew a bit pointless instead. This man's steadfast resolve to figure how and why I revived him from the Lifestream, if I even did so at all, was daunting. I sighed; I doubted he would have allowed me rest on my feet before continuing on to wherever sat our destination.

It wasn't long before I sensed a change in the environment. Or rather, my inward griping made time fly while Sephiroth walked on and on until we chanced upon a cavern more spacious than the ones behind us, and devoid of random pipelines that spewed that sickening stink everywhere. In this one cavern, the sounds of water were more prominent and hazy yellow-green light beamed down from fissures in the high ceiling. I saw gigantic withered tree roots that crept up the colored walls and along the earth and converged upon a single point in the center. And in the center stood a curious shape that I'd never seen before in my whole life.

As Sephiroth passed by this wonder, I impulsively threw out my arms, kicked and flailed my legs as if I were swimming, yet made no progress whatsoever. He stopped in question of my actions and spun around.

"What is it?" he asked.

"What's that thing there, that… sparkling thing, it's so pretty. I have to see it closer."

"It's a fountain of condensed Lifestream," he explained so curtly. "A materia fountain, a very rare natural occurrence."

"Condensed?" I asked. "Let me see it closer. Please?"

"No."

I frowned dejectedly as we moved farther and farther away from the spectacle: a little altar made of crystal or something like crystal. Materia, people called it. The little structure of stone and crystallized Lifestream seemed to beckon me with a potent silence. But I couldn't go to it and the fact saddened me. The shimmering green-white light that emanated from the fountain was so fascinating and soothing that it hurt to lose sight of it.

But I did lose sight of it.

I fell limp over Sephiroth's shoulder. He shrugged my body into a more secure position and moved on in his seemingly usual quietude. But then…

"This planet interests you that much, does it? All its vagaries and quirks… I wonder if you could be an Ancient in its truest form. A genuine relic, unlike that one from so long ago… with only half their blood. But like her mother, full-blooded, pure." He fell silent once more. Unspoken questions hung thick on the air. I was tempted to ask him certain things but I kept my mouth shut. Here, it sounded dubious; and there, it sounded feasible. Until recently, I had never really questioned my existence. I just enjoyed life and the living to the best of my ability. But now I realized that this world was full of mysteries and secrets, so many hidden things.

And I'd just become a part of them.

"No. I think you're much more than Ancient. Much more than human, too. Something… supernatural. Yes, that's what you are… I can sense it. I can sense things now," the man said in a weirdly enchanted voice. I gnawed on my lower lip, until pain knifed through it.

"What are you saying…? Shut up," I hissed under my breath. "I can't be anything you say I am because you don't know me. At all. So just… shut up."

"Heh. Getting defensive, are you. Expected. My assumptions are hitting too close to home, hm?"

"You think you know... but you don't. Stop trying to sound smart. You're probably no different from me."

"Who can really say?"

Everything was quiet, except for the sounds of the mountains. Towering stalagmites divided and dotted the next caverns like an obstacle course. But Sephiroth turned out to be fairly set in his beeline along the right wall to the brimming mouth out of this cave.

We happened upon another winding path leading along a new mountainside. Just around the bend, there stood something like a tower, but very industrial in appearance. Could it have been a smokestack? In the middle of these mountains? Or, was it this reactor place that Sephiroth mentioned when we first fled here from town? This would be the place in which he might find out the truth about me and how and why I gave him life again. To me, it was ridiculous, too ridiculous. Instead of believing anything that I offered, the man would have rather sought out someone else's words and views of me. It had to be common sense that nothing spoke truer than that which came from the source itself. And in that case, it was me, and I was right before him. But he needed more.

"Hm, the scent of Mako isn't as strong as it used to be," he voiced thoughtfully.

"It's still killing _me_," I grumbled into his back.

Sephiroth continued along the path, until finally he'd approached the old spire of a reactor, standing there like a ghost from the past. It was all too still and quiet; neither soldier or worker, nor steam or smog hung busily around the factory. The reactor was devoid of all life, but by now, it was to be expected after touring these mountains for as long as we had.

"Could you put me down now, please? For once, I'd like to walk on my own. If you think I'll run, I promise I won't if only you'd let me walk…" I groaned tiredly.

Almost instantly, the man tossed me on my butt to the ground. I winced, rubbing at my tailbone, as I sat there at his feet. He peered down at me as if he were looking down at a child. I certainly felt like one for a second while he loomed over me.

"Stay in front of me at all times," he advised cautiously. "No funny movements or I won't be responsible for my actions. Do you understand?"

"Yes, yes…" I managed to get upright with little trouble, which prompted Sephiroth to swirl me around in the direction of the reactor and push me forward. "You still don't have to be so rough, though…"

I walked as I was ordered to do, towards the reactor's wide ascending stairs to the giant platform on which it was erected. Mammoth conduits sprouted out in almost all directions from the building and plunged deep within the mountains. Stray vultures screeched overhead, circling the skies like they were waiting for something to die right then and there.

Sephiroth urged me to press through the large iron doors that waited just ahead. I leaned against them, slowly forcing my weight upon them to make them move. And to my surprise, they weren't as heavy as I thought, for they gradually opened inward with a wailing scrape and squeal of metal on metal. A small rush of air passed me by, which was stale and cold. The inside of the reactor that I could see from the doors, mostly blotted out by darkness, had a belying boundlessness to it that one couldn't see from outside. I found myself almost curious.

"So this is a reactor? Doesn't look like a happy place at all… and the smell is worse here than anywhere else… I have to wonder how many things came up here to die for it to be like this."

Sephiroth knuckled me sharply in the back. "Walk."

"Ouch, okay, okay…"

The Mt. Nibel Mako reactor was nothing more than one big tomb. The air was dank, rank and hollow, everything was dark save for a dwindling green glow that rose from below the grated metal floor. I was scared. I felt something bad here, and it wasn't that this was a reactor. Something bad had once been kept here. And even though it might have been long gone now, its presence still managed to stick to this place like lichen to a rock.

"I can't believe you wanted to come here…" I muttered. "This place is like an abandoned hell…"

"This is actually a sacred place… the site of my genesis."

"Genesis?" I said curiously.

"Into the destiny I was once bound for. Who knows… with this new life, maybe I could achieve it at last… Mine and Mother's will, may she rest in peace." The man looked as though he had just been possessed by a ghost. He snatched up my arm and hauled me deeper into the bowels of the reactor. The tone in his voice when he spoke of will and destiny was him at his most disturbing. I wanted to know what he meant but at the same time, I didn't. I knew it wouldn't have sounded good. Like that black haired man had said, he wasn't famous for having good intentions. And in the short time that I'd known him so far, that statement couldn't have been closer to the truth.


	12. Chapter 11: Divining Voice

_**11: The Divining Voice**_

"_Do I believe in destiny? Let's see… No, actually, I don't. Because I don't really know what it means. Isn't my life only what I make of it? Or is there really something out there that I was born to do and only do? If I had to believe in destiny and what mine is… It's just to have a garden and grow things. I like growing things. It makes me happy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to a better life for all. One flower at a time." -Drana

* * *

_

_---  
_

Sephiroth scoured the reactor's facilities with diligence, me in tow, for copies of certain records that might have been left behind. For the most part, he merely ordered me to rummage about here and there, in places that clearly looked dangerous and unsanitary. I did so with the unhappiest frown, not because he used me to do his dirty work but also in fear that I would actually find something about me that I never knew before, and see that my life so far might have been a lie.

He pressed a foot to my back and bore down on it slightly. "That's enough. Now go look over there, woman."

"I have a name, please use it," I grumbled forlornly.

"Personally, I don't care to."

"Why me…" I crawled on my hands and knees around metal crates and boxes scattered in this particular storage room. I began to realize how soiled my clothes were getting, and not from wearing them for more than a couple of days. I'd been almost ground into the earth, dragged through dust and grime, and now, I was being forced to skulk along the floor like vermin, covered in slimy unmentionables. I pined for a bath.

"Stop daydreaming and do what you're told," Sephiroth uttered coldly.

"Alright, alright…" I stopped between several boxes arranged in a horseshoe shape and started prying the lids off. Bugs scuttled frantically from out of the boxes' contents and disappeared into the shadows along the walls. I shook my hands in disgust before having to continue on. "Erm… these seem to have papers in them. And disks. Whatever."

"Show me."

I grabbed a handful of stiff yellowed paper in one hand, dusty floppies in the other, and waved them listlessly at the man. He took the papers first and shuffled through them.

"Useless. Nothing but meaningless old values and readouts," he murmured under his breath. He tossed the papers onto the floor and then snatched the disks from me. "These are likely no different. Show me the others."

"Okay." I moved to another box and handed him the items that were tucked inside.

"Hmm… maintenance reports. They date back eight to ten years ago… These records are from back then."

"Huh?"

"There's nothing here. This entire place is useless. Long since abandoned as Mother's shrine, it's now just a disgusting skid mark on the face of this planet from dirtier times. I know just what to do with this earthly disgrace…"

"What are you talking about?" I said, fearful. Sephiroth looked down at me, a haunted expression masking his face. His feline eyes seemed to grow bright, as if he was suddenly filled with fire. He lifted his arms out in front of him, palms pointing in towards each the other. A pinpoint of red light began to form before us; it swelled bigger and bigger until it was as big as my head. I could feel intense heat welling inside it, permeating the entire storage room. "W-wait! What are you doing?!"

"A little demolition…" He snickered.

"You're crazy! You'll blow us up, too!"

"Ye of little faith…"

The metal walls groaned aloud as though they were being pulled against their will. I dropped into a crouch, slapped my hands over my ears, closed my eyes and tucked my head down. In these quick moments, I was now absolutely sure that Sephiroth was a maniac. A maniac with powers beyond my understanding.

Into the ravaging pump of my heart I tried to escape, because everything on the outside was turning into hell and hellfire. If I was going to burn up and couldn't run from it, at least I would have a tiny bit of comfort in the moments before I did. Home is where the heart is, I thought oh too briefly. And being home was one of my greatest comforts.

_You're better than this. You can protect yourself. It's within your power just as much as it's within his to destroy. Don't you see?_

"Pl… Planet? Is that you?" I asked fretfully. Heat seared my back furiously, my vision caught in a bright red glow that seemed to cloud over anything and everything.

"What did you say? Planet?"

--

The Nibel Reactor drew itself in like a frightened little child, then slowly but surely, its body started to bloat further and further outward. It could barely contain the turmoil boiling inside, groaning metal and hissing steam throughout the cool mountain air. Almost instantly, in a burst of super-heated air and fire, sheets of metal, coils, and pipes winged up into the skies in all directions. Fireballs corkscrewed up and out in a grand display of wild abandon.

"What an impressive show, if I may say. But beyond that, might I consider you a fool for believing I would actually kill myself. I knew what I was doing."

"You're still... crazy," I muttered in exhaustion.

"Insanity is subjective. But you wouldn't know, would you? You have so little understanding of humanity." Sephiroth grabbed hold of my wrist, twisting it in a way that would not break it but merely cause discomfort. He lifted me off the ground to my feet and yanked me to his side.

"Stop it. I'm just as human as you are, or was. I don't need to be treated like this."

"But you're not human, so what does it matter if you're not treated like one? When I find out you're more, I might give you some respect. When I find out you're less... Who knows?"

"You don't scare me," I hissed under my breath.

"Don't I? Wasn't it you who called me Death? A trained soldier can do so many things…"

I fell into silence.

"As of now, it's back to Nibelheim for us."

"If you didn't find what you were looking for there in the first place….why go back…?" I muttered miserably.

"Initial scrutinies don't always reveal everything there is to see. You don't know that?" he asked in a condescending manner. I had to admit that I hadn't thought of that. I felt as if I were missing a few screws. It would only be a matter of time before my body came to realize this and break down completely.

My head sunk low.

With a grimace in his voice, he added, "So I see."

The fire from the explosion still blazed with no clear end in sight. It even seemed to travel throughout the bellies of the mountain range as I saw random billows of smoke rising from the chasms and caves below, and not just from smoldering debris.

"Let's go."

--

Nibelheim was almost literally a ghost town when we arrived within its limits. The afternoon sun was setting in ever so hastily over the depressing peaks. I would have liked the sun to linger a little longer, but this being the season in which days were shorter, I was out of luck.

Sephiroth dragged me through the streets up until we reached the square. A couple of children had obviously been hanging around here not moments ago as footprints were tramped deep into the dirt at our feet and a cloud of dust was slowly fading away into nothing. Towards the town limits, fleeting forms were making their way off elsewhere. I thought it was easy to see that everyone knew something was amiss in town and this was why they made themselves scarce.

My captor sneered at the peoples' general desertion into their houses. He then yanked firmly on my arm and hauled me along in the direction of the big gated building we'd passed behind us.

A dark mote fell upon my cheek from out of nowhere. I flinched then raised my hand to my face to wipe it off.

It was ash, smeared across my fingers.

The reactor on the mountain was still burning, even as we'd departed, and it would probably be like that for quite some time. It was my only hope that the fire wouldn't reach town.

"Come."

Before Sephiroth laid a pale hand on the double doors, he froze and turned his head to the right, as if to look down at me over his shoulder. Instead his catlike eyes looked straight and shifted and rolled cautiously in their sockets.

"Someone's here," he whispered almost inaudibly. The man took a step back, forcing me off the wide concrete porch. "That man from before, no doubt…"

"That Vincent guy?" I blurted out. I was soon given a deadly glare, which I wasn't sure was meant for me, or rather, displaced towards me. I shrank back behind Sephiroth and threw my eyes towards the distance, the square which we came upon earlier farther down the hill.

"This time, there's no retreat." Quickly, with me always in tow, Sephiroth darted inside the great mansion-like building. We practically flew through corridors and up rickety staircases. But before the next room:

"Sephiroth!"

I recognized the voice easily. It was that strange gunman, Vincent. At the far end of the hall in which we stood, underneath the huge stained glass window that shed dim and mottled, colored light into the grand atrium of the mansion's interior, he appeared. Holding us at gunpoint.

"Nice to see you're back at the scene of the crime," Vincent rumbled lowly, though still clearly enough for us to hear. Sephiroth's grasp inexplicably tightened on my hand. His whole body seemed to tense in front of me at the sight of the gunman.

"I could say the same for you."

"So…"

"Mr. Vincent, help me," I shouted. Almost as an impulse, Sephiroth smacked me into the wall, nearly knocking the life out of me as I clawed at the molding wallpaper to keep from falling all the way. He bounded down the hallway, brushing the banister and ripping a piece of wood as long as his arms clean off of it. He swung madly at Vincent, but with inhumanly fluid movement and speed. The gunman had just barely backed out of the way of the blade of wood, having to block another instant swing with the barrel of his rifle.

Sephiroth swirled, shooting a bare heel into Vincent's stomach, and then snapping the piece of wood down on his shoulder. A stifled cry broke from him, but he had recovered rapidly, thrusting the butt of his gun into Sephiroth's gut and turning to leap over the broken banister to the ground floor.

The man staggered a moment, recovered himself, and leapt down after Vincent. Bullets flew up from below, clipping through Sephiroth's billowing gray hair.

Though disoriented, I followed from a distance, watching from above them. I saw a spray of blood, like strewn beads glinting in the light of the huge window, trailing behind Sephiroth as he landed, though never stopping in his strike against Vincent. I crept halfway down the staircase, clinging to the wall as I watched the two men fight.

"Oh…"

Sephiroth swung high and low at the agile gunman, just barely scathing him but enough to leave him in varying degrees of frazzle from every swing's wake. He had eventually been backed into a tall stack of crates, upon which he back flipped and bounded over the other's head.

"Ah ah!" Sephiroth shot a hand out over his head, snagging Vincent's ankle in his grasp and yanking him out of the air. He slammed the man hard to the floor, the old termite eaten wood crackling and splintering so easily under the impact. But almost instantly upon that impact, his leg swept across the floor into the other's ankle, knocking him flat on his back.

Vincent propelled himself back onto his feet, stamped a gold-toed boot on Sephiroth's chest and pointed his rifle right into his face. I saw Sephiroth fall into stillness from where I stood at the stairs. For some reason I couldn't grasp, I knew that he didn't stop fighting just because he was pinned the way he was, and injured the way he was, but merely because he could and he did. This daring he showed in the face of danger was stifling, even from so many feet away. I had to wonder how he would feel if all that failed him, at least once.

"You've got some nerve to come back here," Vincent muttered behind the high collar of his red cape.

Sephiroth said nothing.

"I did a little sleuthing of my own while you were away," he went on. "There wasn't much; over the years, this mansion had been picked almost clean of all Shinra's information a dozen-fold over. Looking for anything on that woman, Drana would've been a lost cause, to and through. She'd stay a total mystery. Until…"

From one of his hidden pockets, the gunman pulled out something small, thin, shaped like a square. I cautiously drew forward to see what it was he held in his clawed hand. At best, it seemed to be a disk, a computer disk, and something to which he alluded held information about me and my supposedly unknown nature.

"This belonged to a certain scientist who studied the Planet about as fervently as your beloved Gast did."

"Really," Sephiroth murmured under his breath.

"The Planet and all its veritable vagaries. Including Weapons."

"Weapons?" I mouthed to myself. I shuddered inwardly at the word.

"But there were more things that went largely unstudied and un-researched. Things like her. Or what could be her. Found in passing notes on this disk, and several others."

"Give them to me," Sephiroth said.

"I don't think so."

"As if you could refuse me?" the man scoffed mockingly, still heedless of his position.

"Who's the one with the gun to his head?" Vincent remarked. "Can you really talk like that and expect to get away with it?"

Sephiroth slowly began to lift his arms off the ground, as if to catch something in the crooks of each. The gunman reacted thusly, smashing the heel of his boot ever harder into the other's sternum. Blood oozed out of his shoulder from the resulting pressure, but he made no effort to wince from the pain.

"I want that disc."

"I want the woman." Vincent's mahogany eyes immediately shot up at me the moment that statement left his lips. I gasped, certainly taken aback. Now I had two men vying for possession over me? As though I were less than a person… If I'd held any affection for these two, and they for me, then things would've obviously been different but still alarming. But this wasn't about affection. It was something bigger than that.

"Mr. Vincent," I shouted. "Tell me please! What's on that disk?"

"I'm not at liberty to say here," he replied. "If you really want and need to know, then come with me."

"Ergh…" I chewed on my lip in hesitation. _What should I do?_ I thought to myself. Of course, staying with Sephiroth meant danger, but was this Vincent person any better? Though his voice was almost cold, he also sounded sincere and of meaning no harm. It wasn't so hard a choice to choose, but I was wary, regardless.

Sephiroth turned his head back and up at me. Even from so far away, his bright feline eyes shot at me like killer green lasers, urging me to stay where I was.

But I'd made my decision.

"I have to know," I breathed, breaking into a mad scramble.

Vincent offered his golden claw for me to take, which I did so with reluctance, but there were worse things to touch. I held on to it tightly as he pulled me back behind him. I'd felt something brush my heel, and when I looked back, I saw it was Sephiroth trying to grab me as I passed him, but to no avail.

"I think it's time for us to go," the gunman uttered.

"She's mine," Sephiroth said between clenched teeth.

"No I'm not!" I snapped. "W, wait, what's wrong with y-your arm…?"

"What?"

The golden claw on Vincent's arm had inexplicably begun to ooze a dark viscous green. It glowed with a surprising light, somewhat like the materia fountain that I'd seen in the mountains, only more subdued. It struggled to the surface of the tarnished gold metal, bubbling and beading and streaming out through tiny fissures. It was a curious sight. Even the gunman's face couldn't help but flush hotly at the wonder.

"What's… going on?"

Sephiroth grabbed Vincent's leg and flung it upwards amidst the confusion, causing the other to fall back and free him of being held at gunpoint. He snatched me on the way to his feet and brought me to his side with a force that could've broken my neck.

Vincent reeled and dropped on one knee to the floor, his rifle clattering on the rotting floor beside him as he clutched his claw. The glowing ooze pooled at his knee, a green haze steaming and swirling up from it. Whatever was happening, it wasn't good. It didn't feel good, either.

"Th-the… monsters, they… I can't… let…"

"V-Vincent?"

Within the green haze that bled from Vincent's arm, a figure seemed to rise. A massive, dark umbra that continued to billow all about from which it sprang. It vaguely had the shape of a man, but something leagues more horrible. I could sense a thing not quite evil but certainly not good. It was powerful and angry, and it wailed for release.

Two strange yellow beads of light rolled down from the very top of the umbra to face us standing below it. It became more and more solid, more and more black. Bigger and bigger. Spreading out and out.

"No… stay in, where you belong…" Vincent struggled. "Ch... Chaos-"


	13. Chapter 12: Light

_**12: Light**_

_**

* * *

**_

---

Beyond the usual medley of monsters that wandered these lands, I never ever thought demons and devils existed. Then again, if they did and I had crossed them, they came to me in different names and forms than this. Yet, they would've exuded this very air all the same, so names and shapes wouldn't have mattered, shouldn't have mattered. There was the air of intimidation. That air of strength. That air of malice. This one was no exception to any of that. It was big, bad, angry, and worse, distraught. But from what, I hadn't a clue.

"Hmph… little more than an overgrown ghost of a bat," Sephiroth jeered.

"C-Chaos… What are you…?"

Vincent could barely manage to stay upright even on his knees. Whatever this thing, or demon, was, it took a tremendous amount of strength to keep it from raging totally out of control, which I was sure it would have done if not for him.

The dark gaseous tethers that bound the ghostly demon thing to Vincent's limb began to break one by one. Some of the larger ones had become like shadows of monsters themselves, huddling around the biggest one's waist, as if hoping to hitch a ride to freedom. The great umbra itself groaned and stretched towards the ceiling of this decrepit old mansion.

"Agh!" Vincent's body twisted in on itself, convulsing like a man being electrocuted. His metallic arm clicked, popped and keened under the constant pressure of the ooze draining out.

"Interesting," Sephiroth whispered.

"What's... happening to him?" I asked, gaping. I found myself in a state of conflict: I wanted to help him but at the same time I wanted to leave this place and never come back. I couldn't decide what to do. But even as I stood there, whether I wanted to or not, Sephiroth kept such a powerful hold on my arm that I was stuck there.

Vincent laid there on the floor in a heap of red and black, his claw sprawled out in front of him in its own pool of blackening ooze. The demonic umbra and its moaning cohorts were almost completely severed from the golden claw, huddled near the high ceiling of this old building.

"Wh…"

From the great shadowy thing burst big and foreboding wings clouded in thick, viscous smog. And just as suddenly as they'd sprouted, did the thing itself, and those around it, fade out in a tremendous haze of darkness that descended like tangible doom upon our heads.

Sephiroth stared upward in absolute wonder as the blackness closed in over us. I knelt down on the floor, despite that it put my captured arm in a position too uncomfortable to bear. I leered at the fallen gunman.

The golden claw.

It'd shattered into a glittering, fizzling pile around his arm, still steeped in darkling ooze. The strange mechanism was now nothing more than scraps. Tarnished golden scraps.

All that remained was an exhausted Vincent, still curled in a bundle underneath his tattered red cape, breathing raggedly into the floor. With me in tow, Sephiroth approached his body and nudged at it with his toes. The downed man had only winced in response.

He snickered lowly.

"Interesting. This is definitely Hojo's handiwork… Failed yet again, of course. Damnable fiend never could amount to Gast." He kicked Vincent square in the ribs, knocking him on his back. I could see the man's face flushed and sweating, more so than earlier.

"Sephiroth…"

"We're out of here." My captor had swiped at something next to the gunman's head, tucked me forcibly under his arm then leapt into a sprint for the front doors of the mansion.

* * *

--

* * *

On and on, the phone rang. But its call fell on the deafest of ears. It wasn't time yet, not yet time to push the 'Talk' button and heed the voice on the other end, the presence that tried anxiously to get a hold of him. Too long, he'd let it ring. It wasn't unexpected that calls would pour in more and more. He made it seem like he'd suddenly fallen off the face of the earth. But he hadn't. It was something else.

"Chaos."

Vincent stared up at the ceiling. It was starting to blur into a dark gray cloud hanging high above him, dotted with tiny sparkling stars of greens, reds, yellows, and blues. He had been staring for so long, his eyes hurt and welled with pained tears but he couldn't stop.

"Galian.

"Gigas.

"Hell.

"Gone…"

His arm felt dead, plastered to the floor by the ooze with its fleeting dark glow and fragments of metal, wire, and tubing. Livid and small, half atrophied from the health it was deprived and the poisons pumped into it.

"What happened…?" he called out in a choked whisper. "Everything's so bright… And my body, it feels, it feels so… Am I dying? It's too early, I've yet to atone for my... sins... Lucrecia, help me..."

* * *

--

Cloud had nearly worn a trench into the dirt as he paced with his phone stuck to his ear. He shook his head, sighed in defeat and looked towards the waning afternoon sky. There was a slight overcast, streaks of gold and purple rimmed clouds reaching down over the horizon.

The road to Kalm was a quiet one.

"Why don't you try calling Vincent? Because all I'm getting is his voicemail. His very… very dull voicemail."

"Why are we trying to get a hold of him again?" Tifa asked, stretching her arms high above her head and rolling her head about on her shoulders.

"I've been talking to Reeve," he began, "and he's been looking into some old Shinra records that he managed to salvage from the ruined headquarters in Midgar. I want to keep Vince up on developments since he's the best recon we got at the moment."

"Right, well… I doubt I'd get through to him anymore than you have, Cloud. I mean, we're still calling the same phone here, same person," the woman replied, winking once at him.

"Er, right. Never mind."

"Let's just assume Vincent's really busy or really into spying on our allegedly resurrected Sephiroth and can't be bothered to answer his phone. You know, kind of like that absolute zen thing you get when you fight."

"Zen thing?"

"You know… zen."

"I'm not…"

"Never mind. Let's get to Kalm. I'm sure Barret's about to blow a cap waiting for us."

"No wait, Tifa." Cloud grabbed her shoulder as she was about to lift a leg onto the back of his motorcycle. She turned her head back, staring curiously with big, round eyes. "What's your take on that woman?"

"Huh?"

"I'm curious," he said with a slight tilt of his head.

"Um, well… what can I say? The clone theory's the most plausible…"

"But most clones were people who didn't resemble Sephiroth in any way, something I forgot about earlier. Look at me."

"You got a point." Tifa stroked her chin in deliberation.

"I'd like to think she's a true clone… only female," Cloud remarked. He leant against the side of his one favored bike, and bent down somewhat to rub at the scuff on his boots. "A secret experiment by Hojo or any of those other former bigwig scientists that worked for Shinra. She said she was from Icicle, right? Didn't that one guy… Gast live in Icicle? He could've done it and grew her there."

"Wow, Cloud, that actually sounds… like you put some thought into it," the woman said with a smirk.

The blond haired man could only scoff and shoot a sour look in her direction. He knew he had his moments of having his head up in the proverbial clouds, but also that he could be just as perceptive as anyone else. But then, Cloud realized, it was better to let some people think what they wanted and surprise them than try to prove them wrong and bore them.

"Well, anyways… Yeah, it could've been possible. Gast was trying to grow his own Sephiroth but kind of screwed up and the clone came out female. And who knows what else."

"But… why would Gast want to make a clone of Sephiroth?"

"Well, Gast was a scientist, just like Hojo. Hojo was always competing to be the better one, so I heard. Maybe with Sephiroth, he finally won over him so… Gast tried to do the same thing. Make a super soldier."

"You know, Cloud, maybe we're getting off-track here," Tifa interjected. "I doubt this could go as far as some stupid contest between Gast and Hojo. It could be something oh so simpler."

"Oh come on, right now we know virtually _nothing._ It's not hurting anything to mess around with theories."

"Okay, Cloud. But come on, we really gotta get to Kalm. Barret and the kids are waiting. I'm sure they really want to see you." She smiled warmly and patted him on the shoulder. He stared blankly for a time but Tifa's smile was too contagious in itself for him not to do the same. He nodded and helped her hop on his bike.

"Okay, let's go." Cloud jumped on soon after and began to rev up the engine. "Now all that really needs to happen is Vincent answering his phone."


	14. Chapter 13: Hunter Regales

_**13: Hunter Regales the Hunted**_

"_You know, dreaming is strange. Those kids used to tell me about dreams they had. And then I'd realize…I never had any. At least none that I could ever remember. But then…well, there were a couple things. Streams in the dark while I slept… They were very calming. Not sad, like some would think, except when they started to cry. Streams? Crying? It's funny, I know." - Drana

* * *

_

_---  
_

Sephiroth didn't necessarily seem like one to stay in one place to me. Bits of observation showed me that he always appeared to be busy one way or another, always moving. Or maybe it was just the situation that he was in, that we were in, that made him this way. It was hard to tell.

We were in a place called Costa del Sol. Here, everything was bright and sunny, warm and breezy. It was a tropical clime, and very clearly by the looks of it, a tourist hotspot. Tanned beauties strolled about the sandy streets, giggling and chattering between each other, or chasing after equally tanned muscular young men. Then, of course, there were the tourists, in their flamboyant shorts, shirts, and dresses, traveling in gaggles down to the beaches or up to the hotels, bars, and villas. It was a busy little coastal town, so drastically different from Icicle. In Icicle, we never had many visitors because we were so out of the way and the tundra wasn't well reputed for its welcoming cold, if it was even welcoming at all.

All this I had time to think on before I was dragged into a nearby hotel, its interior hid deeply in shadow to maintain coolness. Sephiroth made reservations for a room; one he demanded should have a computer and network access. The registrar, who looked just a tad fearful but more confused than anything else, obliged.

The small man showed us to the room in which we'd be staying and handed Sephiroth the key as soon as he unlocked its door. My captor took everything without a word and moved quickly inside. I motioned to the registrar with a slight and frantic wave. I'd hoped he took it to mean I needed help; I thought it would have seemed obvious by the way I was being handled, too. But the man only stared blankly at me, like he couldn't understand anything that was going on. And maybe he didn't.

Sephiroth yanked me into the room and slammed the door.

"Do you want me to tie you up?" he asked suddenly.

"I-"

"Then don't give me a reason to." His brow was sharp and furrowed; I was scared that his expression would physically slice into my skin. I shrank back.

"I…"

"Here."

Sephiroth dragged me in the direction of the bathroom and threw me inside. I fell against the bathtub, hitting my head on it rather hard and slumped to the floor in pain.

I heard a soft sigh.

"… hmph." He promptly shut the door. I heard the sound of something dragging across the floor outside the bathroom, followed by some clattering. I jumped to my feet and reached for the doorknob.

I twisted. And it turned; then I pushed.

It didn't budge.

Sephiroth had barricaded the door. I groaned and pushed harder against it but it moved not even a visible inch.

"Let me out!" I screamed.

"Not just yet…"

Then it was quiet.

--

I'd counted maybe two hundred and fifteen stone tiles in the walls of this bathroom so far. Only one and a half walls I'd counted on, but it was a good enough number, either way. Once I reached one hundred, I was bored to death, but since I had nothing better to do, no better choice, I could only keep going then. But now, I was tired of it and moved on.

I jumped in the bathtub and started playing with the faucet. Even though the hotel interior was shaded by curtains, blinds, and whatever else, heat still managed to creep in. It wasn't insufferable, but…

"Hmm?"

I looked up and stared at the wall that the tub abutted. I could hear a faint noise, like upbeat music playing through. But it wasn't just loud enough for me to hear through these thick looking brick-like tiles; there was a crack. Curious, I raised a hand to the wall and poked at it.

"This wall must be…pretty old," I said under my breath. "Or at least… not built very well."

I pressed at all the tiles around the crack. Eventually, one of them started to give away, retreating farther into the wall but by only an half an inch or less. I gasped. But I didn't stop. I kept pushing at it until it finally began to slide in ease and fall out of the wall itself. Now there was a big rectangle-shaped hole in the wall.

"Hey," a voice cried.

I yelped and slid down into the tub, below the rim where I couldn't easily be seen.

"What is this…? Rats?"

I realized that it wasn't Sephiroth's voice, nor was it the voice of someone who sounded the least bit hostile. More like… dumbstruck.

Several fingers abruptly popped out of the hole over my head. I further tilted my head up at them in wonder. Then, "Who's there?"

"Wh-what?!"

"Shh…" I sat up and peered into the hole my curiosity had created. Within it, I saw the face of a somewhat young looking man, with fantastic spiky, red hair. He looked awfully confused but I had to wonder if it was just that I'd unexpectedly poked a hole into his room or if he always looked like that.

"What the," he said in a passing breath. Then his thin lips broke into a broad grin. "Oh, hey there, sweet thing. Taking a bath, I see? M-mind if I… No, I mean, er, never mind. It, it... I shouldn't be here."

"No wait," I said, stopping him. "Can you help me? I'm trapped in here. I have to get out. Please."

"Trapped? W-what's your name?" he asked.

"Huh? Uh it's… Drana. N, nice to meet you…"

"Name's Johnny," he replied.

"Hi. Now could…"

"What are you doing trapped in there, anyways? Abusive boyfriend? Tax collectors? Burglars?"

"This lunatic stuck me in here… I don't know what he wants from me but he treats me so badly, I have to get out of here. I can't take it anymore. Please help, I'll give you whatever you want if you only get me out."

"Whatever I want? Er, I, I mean… Sure, anything for a gal in distress." This man Johnny smiled nervously as he inched around the hole in the wall. I looked at him dubiously; he, in actuality, didn't appear all that reliable but at least he was willing to help me out. It was a godsend, but I had no time to be grateful just yet.

"Now, uh… what to do… Oh! If you could help me make this hole just big enough for me to crawl through, oh but you can't be loud. He's still in the next room, so he could hear us."

"W-Well, I'll see what I can do," Johnny told me. He ran his hands along the brick tiles around the hole and pulled on them. Only one had bothered to move, jutting a little into the bathroom at a lopsided angle. "These things are packed in kinda tight."

"Just do what you can," I encouraged.

Johnny continued to work on the lopsided tile block, but while it didn't fall out like the other did, he managed to push it to the side. The one above that followed, and then the one on other side was now free of obstructions.

We tried to be as quiet as we could, but this man thought it appropriate to make small talk at a time that plainly dictated otherwise. He was nervous, that much one could see like the sun in the sky. He fidgeted and slipped, but he did a pretty good job on the wall. It was starting to open up more and more.

"Yes," I cheered in a whisper. "That's almost perfect… a little snug but perfect."

"Okay, lemme give you a hand," he offered, which I gladly took. I thrust my head into the opening. It was more snug than I thought, constricting in fact. But that I had to ignore and just make my way through. "There you go."

"Yes, now I-"

A heavy hand fell on Johnny's shoulder, gripped him tight and effortlessly lifted him to his feet. Meanwhile, I was still stuck by my waist in the hole. Firmly in shock.

"I do believe that's mine you're trying to steal."

"Hey, man, I was just… guh…"

Sephiroth loomed like a deadly ghost over the skinny man that tried to help me, coming close to crushing the poor thing's shoulder under his grasp. His cat eyes floated down sharply upon me.

"Foolish woman, you thought your escape would go unnoticed for so long? I thought about letting you go for a few minutes… Give a nice little chase… but I'm not in the mood, I must apologize." He turned his eyes back to Johnny who stood frozen before him, his spiky hair seeming to rise higher than it already seemed to reach, which was about three inches straight up. "As for you, I suggest you run. Now. You won't get another chance."

"Y-yessir!" he shouted in a strained voice. He looked down at me with deep apology in his eyes and darted out in a hurry.

"No! No!" I cried. "I was so close… so close…"

Sephiroth grabbed one of my arms and dragged me out of the hole. I vied against him; I would rather have stayed there than went back with him. But my strength could never match his, and soon, I was laying flat on my face on the floor.

"Get up. Make it easier on yourself."

"No," I grumbled sadly.

"Stubborn woman." My captor knelt down by my side and hoisted my shoulder up. I rolled my head towards the floor and continued to stare straight down. "If that's the way you want it, be my guest."

He snatched up the neck of my top and stood. The upper half of my body rose more than a foot from the floor, whereupon he commenced to drag me out of the room and into the open hallway. The fabric agonizingly cut into my throat, but I didn't say a word, nor squeak out any discomfort.

I was taken back to the room we were given, whereupon I was dropped on the floor at the foot of the bed. Sephiroth went back to lock the door. Then he hovered over me for a second, and eventually, sat on the foot of the bed that I laid under. He rested his booted feet on my back.

"I was reading the information on that disk. It was all written by this strange woman, whom I never heard of before. But apparently, she worked alongside Professor Gast and Hojo on the Jenova Project… But on her own time, and sometimes with another unknown scientist, she researched things entirely different. She wrote about the Planet and the Lifestream… And even the Weapons, these special mechanisms created by the Planet, primarily as protection from harm, but some were given functions other than combat. Not necessarily Weapons themselves but… Are you listening?"

He dug his heel into the small of my back. I grunted, but otherwise, did nothing to acknowledge him.

"Hm.

"As I was saying, there were other creatures bred directly by the Planet's will… But the information on these is hazy. This woman was not psychologically sound. They're like that, aren't they? Women. Your minds are rarely there. I guess that's why you're called the irrational sex, as well as fairer. She would've made a poor mother… But yes, she was letting things get to her and it affected her work, her words. But in it all, I can still gather what she tried to say. There were those to safeguard life on the Planet. One would foster life, one was the Reaper, another a vessel of last resort to sail the stars with all life within it, searching for a new haven where things might flourish once again should this Planet be on the very brink of death. And so on to the ones that would physically battle all threats."

"Ah… what are you suggesting?" I queried.

"I am suggesting… although it's so far-fetched," he said, leaning down upon my back, "that if you were so special, why would the Planet let you roam so freely where you could lose your way? It would've been better to tuck you away like a bird, in a cage. And yet, you don't seem corrupted by humanity's masses and the atrocities they commit on a daily basis. It makes me wonder."

_A bird, tucked away in a cage_, I thought. Icicle; it was isolated from pretty much all the rest of the world. Like a cage of land, where I roamed as safely and freely as I thought I did, until I learned that there was more to the world than just the tundra. But then, I was probably reading too much into things.

"Oh? Hmm. Didn't you say you were from Icicle? I guess that would count, now wouldn't it? A caged habitat for you to frolic in... so close to the Great Crater. Where Mother first fell from the sky so long ago... and where the Weapons slept."

"Who is the…?"

"Mm?"

"Who…" I paused. "Who is she?"

"You mean the one that wrote the papers transcribed on that disk? I believe it is a woman by the name of Lucrecia Crescent. Why?"

"Lucrecia…" I muttered to myself, closing my eyes. I could feel that name somewhere deep within me. But it was so far down that I couldn't reach that place, I couldn't grasp it, I couldn't hold it, I couldn't see it. But it was there, I was sure of that.

"I doubt the woman herself is anything important. But what she wrote… there's more… still more to look over. Oh, if you're really what you could be… The possibilities are endless. Suddenly, I think I'm in love, ha." Sephiroth chuckled softly, taking hold of my top again. He pulled me up against the bed and to his side. He pinned my arms behind me and stared sort of longingly into my face. His bright green eyes darted from side to side then straight again, locking onto mine. I squinted, and then looked away, but he'd turn my face back to meet his, keeping it in place with a thumb and two fingers clamped around my chin. "And... I must wonder why you look the way you do… like me. And your eyes. I've never seen these kinds of eyes before and I have traveled the world and seen many things… many things. But you…"

--

_From Sixth: I am so funky_

_P.S.: Aren't I witty._


	15. Chapter 14: Maybe Kindred

_**14: Maybe Kindred Monsters

* * *

**_

----

"Yuffie, have you found Vincent yet?"

"Hey, I just got to Nibelheim; gimme a chance to get my bearings, sheesh… It's like you morphed into some whiny pregnant woman, man. I'm sure your baby's father's fine."

"Yuffie…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know. Give me half an hour, then call back for a check up. Later, Cloud."

Yuffie hastily pocketed her phone as she stood on the limits of town just a few yards from Nibelheim's only inn. As usual, this out-of-the-way burg was just a little to moderately dead, of course in the figurative sense. The few children that lived here rarely hung outside for long. _Such bad actors_, the ninja girl had pondered. Back in Wutai, her great motherland, she recalled that some parents couldn't get their kids to come inside past the wee hours of the morning for the life of them. Outside her bachelorette pad in the occidental village, she had to chase away the whooping brats with a stick, because they'd play almost right on her doorstep. Those days when she was home were not so common now with so many changes on the wind, but she was glad for being reminded of better days.

"Oh right, time to root out the ol' coot."

Yuffie headed right for the inn, bursting through its doors as though she were a great official come to town. But the few people hanging out in the lobby hardly paid her any mind. Their feigned ignorance didn't faze her. She sauntered towards the front desk where one scruffy old man was chatting up a scruffier and even older man.

"… my kids in Edge came visitin' a few days ago. Didn't take long for 'em to leave. Funny how outside folks're thinkin' Nibel's been built on land with the worst vibes on the Planet."

"Yeah, they forget about Midgar, 'm sure. But hey, yer an outside folk, 's well. We all is. We just been here a while is all. Got used t' the environs, what it is."

The old man coughed, wheezed and laughed all at once. Yuffie, all the while eavesdropping, was ready to jump something with her shuriken as soon as she'd heard it. But she didn't want anyone to fall into cardiac arrest, so she let it slide.

"Used to reckon it was that reactor up on th' peaks, but with that all blewed up, it prob'ly is jes natural bad vibrations."

"Well hello there, my good fellows! Nice day, huh?" the girl chimed all of a sudden. The two elderly men looked blankly in her direction as she strutted on up to the desk and waved. "Heh, I was wonderin' if you guys've seen a tall lanky dude running around town lately. Dressed in red and black, looks like a million puppy dogs die in his wake or something like that. Seen him?"

The two men eyed each other for a brief moment. One coughed.

Finally, "Well, I ain't seen no dead dogs about but I HAVE seen this shady feller hangin' around the Shinra mansion like it was 'bout ta come alive. Then he up and dis-a-purred 'bout a few days ago."

"Looked like he been scopin' out these two odd grayhead folk that recently came ta town, if'n ya ask me. But they up and vanished, too. Yup. Must be migratin' season for th' spooks around 'ere."

The old duo nodded solemnly in unison, while Yuffie's face melted into a mask of pure bewilderment.

"Eh? Aw man… How can Vince keep a tab on things if he's not NOT gone to do it? I gotta go find that old coot," the ninja thought aloud. She speedily turned and bowed to the men. "Hey, thanks for the info, old dudes!"

Yuffie wandered up the hill upon which Shinra mansion perched. As it was only the late morning, the decaying building had yet to take on that truly spooky feeling and for this, the girl was relieved. She remembered this place well from the few trips she took here in the past, along with Cloud and the rest of the crew. It was a place where hideous things were conducted and bred under its roof and below in its basement, one such thing being Vincent himself. But she couldn't blame the man for being the way he was, because he'd been an experiment himself.

"Gawd, I wish Vince would stop hanging around this place. No two ways about it, this whole mansion's gotta be a demon in itself… and I have to go in…"

Yuffie found herself on the big, wide porch before the half rotted, but still amazingly solid front doors. She leant close with a hand pressed against the glass panes to peek inside. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she wiped, the grime clinging to them could not, would not, go away. Her only choice was to go in.

"Okay… nothing to be afraid of, Yuffie. And if there is… bam! Shuriken to the face and bread basket. Oh ho ho, girl, you are _deadly_." Yuffie twisted the knob and slipped between the crack in the doors just as it started to open.

As was to be expected, the air smelled of house death and, of course, a few other things, things she preferred not to think about.

"Hey Vincent?" she called out. "Hey, supposedly resurrected Sephiroth? Hey, possibly-a-female-clone-of-Sephiroth lady? Anybody here? … anyone? I really don't wanna go any farther than this. Don't make me, guys."

Silence.

The ninja girl sighed exhaustedly, and then took a step from the threshold. She scanned the gloomy atrium. With the sun still rising towards the north, the interior had yet to be illuminated by daylight. So, everything was bathed in one shade of darkness or another.

She trudged across the creaking old floor and over random fallen debris, careful not to trip because she couldn't tell what was lying around unless she tried, and she decided against that.

"Hey Vince… Huh, I wonder if he's in the basement…"

Yuffie stared up at the dull stained glass window that dominated the better half of the atrium's immediate upper floor.

Squish.

"Eh? Ewwww… I don't wanna know what that is, I don't wanna know…" She stopped dead in her tracks and pinched her nose. Whatever it was she stepped in, it smelled awful. And when she'd shifted her foot to lift it, she would hear a sharp crunch, many sharp, little crunches. "Bugs?!"

Yuffie looked down.

Much to her surprise and relief, the stuff stuck to the bottom of her boot was nothing what she thought it was. Instead, it was something black and shimmery. The girl stepped aside and crouched down for a better look. But the stench had almost overwhelmed her and knocked her on her butt. She clamped two fingers hard over her nostrils again and bent down closer.

"Huh… just metal and icky, black goo. Doesn't smell like blood, that's for sure…" Yuffie stood up, brushing off her hands while she took two giant steps back from the mess on the floor. "Huh… wait, metal… Gold metal, even. I wonder if Vince had… Nah."

The ninja pulled some tack stars out of a pouch attached to her belt, wedging them between her fingers.

She'd heard noises but wasn't sure whether it was her ears playing tricks or not. But if not, someone or something was nearby and she wanted to be ready in case it was foe over friend.

"I know you're there, come on out," she announced.

No acknowledgment came.

Yuffie moved ahead, her body tense and alert, tack stars locked in her hand. She felt she was ready for anything now.

"Except that."

She dropped her battle poise and leapt into a dash for the stairs.

"Vinny! I found you! Are you okay?" The girl knelt next to the black and red mass resting at the foot of the staircase, which coincidentally happened to be none other than Vincent. She energetically waved a hand over his face then bent over for a clearer view of him. His eyes were closed and his face perhaps paler than usual, but by the way his body ever so slightly moved, he was still alive, or as alive she thought he could ever be, which didn't seem to be much at times. "Vinny, are you in there? Vincent! Wake up!"

He gave no answer.

Yuffie exhaled in defeat.

Then her phone rang.

And his phone rang.

Only Yuffie was able to answer her own. "Hello? Oh hey, Cloud. Listen… I think I found Vincent. But he's…"

She paused and shrugged reluctantly at the body.

"… comatose or something, I dunno. He's lying right here on the floor, won't even move an inch or say a thing. I think he's broken…" The girl poked at Vincent's shoulder, which felt surprisingly stiff underneath her fingers. "Yup, he's broken."

* * *

---

The more he read, the more he pondered… and the more he stared. I believed his fascination in me was becoming unhealthy.

I found a certain solace in that what he found on that disk didn't have enough incidental evidence that led to me being some sort of monster created by the Planet. I was sure it wasn't that. I was sure I was just a human with a special little quirk that the Planet gifted me on a whim. I was sure, and as long as he couldn't truly find what he needed to prove his suspicions right, my surety would stay strong.

He'd tied me up and sat me on the floor at the foot of the bed, as he whiled the day away at the desk, gazing into that computer screen for hours and hours at a time. I didn't doubt that that glowing white screen was slowly driving him crazier. I knew I would've jumped out the window myself if I ever stared at something like that for as long as he did.

"Ugh," I groaned.

I pined for a bath and the tub was so close yet so far. It had been days since, probably more than a week but I lost some track of time, and my clothes were soiled, even torn to the point of being utterly irreparable. But he wouldn't give me this request, while he treated himself to showers and new clothes, which admittedly was a welcome sight from the dusty black sheet I'd seen him wearing when he first captured me. He was dressed like an out of uniform military man, fair yet tough looking all the same.

I grumbled. To be treated like this was beyond forgiveness. I was on the verge of plotting revenge should I ever get free, revenge that I wasn't actually sure how to plot.

"Sephiroth, please," I pleaded. "I want a bath. At least give me that much. It's not like I'm asking for the world on a platter…"

"I can't seem to trust you anymore," he said in an eerily distant and dreamy voice. "You'd promised that you wouldn't run… but you broke that promise… you broke that trust."

"I, I'm sorry… Y-you just don't know what it's like to held captive like this."

"Don't I? You know nothing about me."

"I would if you'd told me…"

"You would if you'd asked, too."

I frowned and looked at the floor. I realized it was careless of me. Because he was my captor, I never really bothered to ask about him as a person. But then, he was my captor, my kidnapper. Why would I have wanted to talk to him, much less ask him about his personal life when he treated me so poorly? He had to yank the words out of me. I didn't want to get to know someone who could be so cold and cruel to another human being.

"I… All I want is a bath. I-I can't even think about running right now, if that's what you're thinking…"

Sephiroth sighed and sat back in his chair. Then slowly, too slowly, he swiveled in my direction, his gaze wooden.

Finally, he stood up and walked into the bathroom. The hole in the wall had been covered with the bottom of a drawer that he'd wrenched from the dresser. I scooted myself towards the door, puzzled, half by the way he fixed the hole and half by what he planned to do next.

"You want your bath? Fine, I shall provide." Sephiroth leant into the tub for a second, and then stood back straight. He reached for the faucet and turned on the water.

"Huh…?"

He came towards me, while water rushed wildly into the tub behind him. He squatted down in front of me, eyeing me hard in the face, which caused me to squirm like a helpless snake under a knife.

"Get up," he said, grabbing my arm. I was hauled to my feet; I couldn't really have gotten up on my own, because my wrists and ankles were bound with the thick hems from the now torn and discarded bedsheets.

"Wh-wha, what are you doing?!"

Sephiroth put a heavy hold around my hips, hooking his thumbs on the inside of my skirt. In one fleet motion of his hands, everything I wore below the waist was on the floor, heaped about my feet. I stumbled back but he caught me by the waist, almost at the same time ripping my top open and anything else that was underneath it with his free hand.

I yelped and thrashed, constantly tripping over myself to get away, with no success. Eventually, Sephiroth let me drop to my knees and shoulders at his feet. I was mortified. I was naked, exposed and tied up like a plucked bird ready for slaughter.

"Hmm… hairless like a Cetra. Hojo's studies could've been right, should you be one if nothing else…"

If death by blushing were possible, I would have been dead already, twofold over.

"Come." Sephiroth hooked an arm under mine and dragged me upright. He pulled me on into the bathroom and dropped me in the tub with a splash. He turned the water off and then just stood there, almost as motionless as a statue. I blinked up at my captor, but quickly switched my head in the other direction. I was too embarrassed to look him in the face, especially after what he'd done. "Have fun. I have to go out. Do anything more than sit there and we'll see how long you can breathe underwater when I get back."

And he was gone.

"Agh… I've never been so…"

* * *

--

"H-Hey Tifa? Been a while, huh? Listen, I thought I'd let you know..."

* * *

----

I reclined backwards in the water, its level almost high around my chin. I was unable to do much of anything with my hands tied behind my back, my ankles still bound and underwear tangled about them. So, like I had been ordered to, I just sat there. I sat there watching the faint steam swirl up and up and disappear into the air. Hot water in a hot clime? I was boiling.

"Ha… Did I really have to leave Icicle just so I could endure all this? Would I have missed so much just staying at home there all my life? I think I regret leaving now. I just wanted a simple, easy life... a normal life…"

"How human of you."

Sephiroth appeared at the doorway. It felt as if it'd been too soon for him to come back from whatever he'd left to do. But I wasn't going to question any of it. I twisted my head away, but he was still there, I knew it. Such an action couldn't get rid of most people so easily. And… he just had that kind of presence. It demanded to be known without even trying.

"We all want life to be simple and easy. But rarely are we granted these... hand-outs? Some are even given the exact opposite. A bad life is all they can live. Nothing but... trials and tribulations around every corner. Hm.

"But we, we're different, you and I. Whether our lives were good or bad in the beginning, we have power to change. We have power to make things better for us, and for everything and everyone else. I can see what you're capable of, and no human could ever have what you have. So why deny your true nature?"

I shrank away from the side of the tub as Sephiroth slowly started to kneel against it. With one hand on the rim, he raised the other for my arm. He snapped me into his grasp then drew me closer to him. His eyes seemed fixed to my forehead but was obviously looking lower than that.

"Drana, you called yourself? ... It almost sounds otherworldly. Fairly fitting, as well." The man's face was a perfect portrait of severity, though his words were more like admiration than anything. It scared me, he scared me. There'd been a change, one I didn't notice until now, but what it was, I didn't know. It wracked my brain but it just wouldn't let itself be known.

"I… I'm not…"

"Dr. Lucrecia Crescent wrote that there was one like a walking fount of the purest Lifestream," he told me. "Born of the Planet's will, in the beginning, to see life grow and be nurtured. The Antithesis to one called Chaos. She theorized that this creature's purity made it easily manipulated, thus she and her colleague left the location of its resting place within the earth a secret. Because they knew such unfettered power would lead to disaster if left to the wrong hands. But these sorts of things happen anyways, don't they…"

"S, so?" I snorted softly.

"I know what you think. There's no evidence that would lead anyone to believe that you are this one particular thing. And it's true. There is none. There are no references to your name, your person, nothing at all. It only tells of creatures of myths and legends and the Lifestream." Sephiroth stopped speaking to take in a deep breath and exhale an even deeper one. The man's eyelids fluttered as if he had butterflies in his stomach and wanted them out.

"But you can't fool me, woman. I am much more evolved than a human, my senses, godly. I know what you are." Sephiroth leant in closer to me than he ever did before, so close that I could feel his breath on my neck and his sharp chin brushing the side of my shoulder. I fidgeted in inexplicable fear.

"Please… You've got the wrong person," I whimpered.

"Wrong."

Sephiroth pressed his scarily soft lips to my shoulder, parting them so that next I could sense his teeth being bared against my skin. I crooked my neck as far away from him as possible, straining so much that it hurt. Too much to bear. He was going to do something drastic.

"Correct."

"Stop!" My eyes welled with tears as pain spidered through my neck and chest. I thrashed, though the water stunted most of my movement. I tried desperately to get up and away but my captor had, as always, managed a powerful clutch around me, pinning me in place.

"Look!" he barked. "Take a look!"

"No!"

The greatest effort I could muster at last launched me vertical, where Sephiroth had suddenly released me upon my rising up. As I flew through the motions, I'd glimpsed my shoulder where he'd bitten hard into my flesh. It drove me crazy to wonder why, why, why would he do that. But it was simple. He was crazy. And it made me crazy, too.

I fell forward.

Sephiroth made no move to catch me, instead only watching from the sideline with a tender grin on his lips.

My face smacked hard into the water; I was blinded by the rush of bubbles, the porcelain white of the tub's bottom, and my own hair curling and waving about my face. I saw glowing green stars and stripes trickle in from the corners of my eyes and play on my hair. They were so pretty; I wanted to touch them but my hands were still tied. I could only watch them rock back and forth and swirl and sway.

They were oh so pretty.

And her face was pretty, too.


	16. Chapter 15: Flighty Ones

_**15: The Flighty Ones**_

"_There are nights…the clouds are big and gray. But sometimes the sky peeks through and I can see. You know what I'm talking about? The stars are just twinkling way up there, you know? Sometimes I wish I could fly away up there, into space. Then I realize it's not time just yet. There're things still to be done here, lots of things. My time's not up yet. But-" -Drana

* * *

_

_---  
_

"He's a mischievous one, isn't he? And not exactly all there. Sort of... like a mad genius, don't you think?"

"I think that's about right. He scares me a lot, though. I can barely understand him. Can you?"

"I understand a little bit, a little more than I did at first, though at the cost of something dear... But~ I don't regret gaining the knowledge; it means I can help my friends better, even if it's only indirectly."

"Indirectly?"

"Hmm. There's so much you need to know. But you're still young and the Planet can help and teach you. The Planet loves you."

"Did it tell you that? If so, then I love you, too, Planet."

"... The similarities are so amazing, I think... it would blow my mind."

"Similarities?"

"Mm... Why don't you wake up now?"

"Huh?"

* * *

--

"No!" I screeched.

My mind swam in sickening disbelief.

The dream was over and I was tossed back into reality, the reality I wanted so much to get away from, the reality that wouldn't let go of me even if it meant tearing me apart. The gardens were beautiful, too beautiful to have been a dream. The flowers smelled so real, and the colors were so vivid and cheerful. I wanted to be there forever; I wanted my own to dream and sleep in.

But no.

Here, there weren't any gardens.

Here, there wasn't any great blue sky.

Here, there weren't any bright happy colors.

It was the same shady hotel room, the same sticky hot air that clung to my skin, the same man that held me captive like the sick bird of a sicker owner. Nothing had changed, except I was now lying in bed and the binding on my wrists, undone. And Sephiroth hovered astride me, hands interlocked in his lap, and eyes on me as though he were watching a movie. And I was still naked.

"You twitch in your sleep. Hmm."

"Ugh…" I wanted to burst out laughing. For no apparent reason. Or maybe I was so disgusted trying not to think of what could've happened while I was passed out, that laughing was the only thing I actually felt capable of.

"Don't worry. I haven't violated you in any way. Despite what you think, I was on my best behavior. Though in that deep sleep of yours, I doubt you would have... ever noticed." He beamed down at me a broad, unsettling grin, which faded to abrupt seriousness. "But as I said, I have manners."

"Wh…what are you doing…?"

"Watching you."

I frowned uncomfortably. "It's not polite…"

"Really now. Then I must... humbly apologize?" Sephiroth had frozen all of a sudden, and then blinked curiously. He folded his arms in each other, gazing down at me while seeming to think very hard about something. "But now you've got me wondering, wondering what your body would be like… I'd hate to admit but I'd never really been with a woman before. The ones that came to me were of the lowest of scum. Being in the army never really attracted any good company. But you…"

He poked at my breast with a sharp knuckle, then made a motion as if to grab the whole thing in his hand, but thankfully declined. I sighed silently under my breath and stared off into any space but his.

"You mimic a woman perfectly well," he noted. "You act perfectly well like one, too."

"I AM a woman," I said, pained by his words.

"Keep on believing that. But you saw with your own eyes what you really are. Or do you choose to block it out? No woman, no human, bleeds the Great Flow of Life. Don't you understand? That was Lifestream pouring out of your skin. Didn't you see? I know you did. And you deny it. Ignorance. You're ignorant."

"I'm human," I snapped, "and somehow you are, too. So stop acting like you're the highest and almightiest... You're not."

"Your tongue isn't acid enough to faze me, little girl," he chuckled derisively. "Nice try, howe-"

Sephiroth rolled off the side of the bed, dragging me over his shoulder. My legs had pulled half the bedspread along with us, with which we both struggled to get clear of.

But why was this happening and what was he doing? I was stumped. Until I heard something rolling across the floor, something only my captor could see. I crooked my eyebrow into his back, wondering what in the world made him start like that.

"What-"

"Shh. Monster."

"I'm not a mons-"

"In this room," he hissed. "But how did it get in…"

The entire hotel room fell into a deathly quiet, all except for the subtle blips of the computer in the southwest corner of the room. And then a final rattle against the wall by this intruder that had mysteriously made its way in here.

He let me to slowly slide down his back onto the floor next to him. With a monster present, I knew he was sure I wouldn't try anything funny. And he was right, though for reasons different from my own. Specifically, I was naked. Though I would have liked, I couldn't run around this way. I was much too shy for that.

Sephiroth ran a hand underneath the bed and pulled from below a sword. That sword. Before I could gather its incredible length into my eyes, he'd already bounded over the bed in a single leap, weapon brandished like a killer gale.

I sighed breathlessly as I scrambled to my knees, peeking over the edge of the bed.

"Hey, who cut the fucking wall down?!"

Random shouts and screams spilled through into our room. But Sephiroth stood there, perfectly still, over a large egglike object lying on the floor. It was diced in half, along with part of the wall that both stood next to.

"Wh, what just happened?" I asked, gripping the mattress hard. "Is, is that a monster?"

The egg thing had large painted eyes like a doll, which lazily lulled downwards. They looked alive, but at the same time, not.

"How did it get in…?" Sephiroth said to himself. He staked that humongous blade of his sharply in the floor, his fingers sliding from the hilt and halfway down its length. He finally turned to me as I knelt half-hidden on the other side of the bed. His feline eyes became scarily dark, looking as if I had something to do with all of this.

I quickly twisted away, drawing my knees up around my chest and hugging them as tight as I could. Then I closed my eyes.

* * *

--

"Tifa, Cloud, nice to see you again! It's been a while since we last met in person. How are you guys?"

"Hi Reeve. We're good but this isn't exactly the best time to be sitting down and chatting like old buddies. You know…"

"Ah."

The WRO headquarters was established in one of Kalm's largest townhouses that had gone abandoned after Meteorfall. It, and a few other surrounding abodes, had been used to accommodate the Midgar salvage crew and soldiers who were either homeless or needed a place to stay while away from their homes; the office workers who handled all the paperwork and rescued archives taken from the ruined city; and even a surplus outlet that supplied countless bare necessities to the people of Kalm and Edge in general.

And it was here that Tifa would sometimes bring Marlene and Denzel when she needed time from the bar; it was also that sometimes Denzel was so adamant about wanting to help the WRO out, wanting to be a little hero, another Cloud but infinitely more energetic. And she liked seeing him that way.

But the two children weren't with them today. It was just Cloud and Tifa. Barret babysat them back in Edge, while tending to usual business.

It was business here, too. Not too usual following over two years since Meteorfall, but business, nonetheless.

Reeve was the go-to man when it came to seeking out knowledge and info about things around the world. He'd kept tabs on the recovery of the Planet and its nations, lending the WRO when and where they were needed. But they all knew it was more than just from the kindness of his heart. He had once been part of the group that nearly led everything to destruction and he was trying to atone for it all, though it was hardly all his fault. But he couldn't keep from performing his self-appointed duties.

"I don't know if anybody's told you already but apparently Sephiroth's running among the living again. And with a hostage, too. We've been trying to investigate this…though we hit a couple Mu hills… But, but we're not down and out yet. But then, we're in need of a little assist. That's where you come in." Tifa smiled somewhat dubiously as that she talked, filling Reeve in on the matter, though skimping on some details.

"First," Cloud interjected, "we need you to look after Vincent while he's down for the count."

"What happened to him?" Reeve asked.

"No clue. We can't even pull a peep out of him. Either way, we're bringing him in on the Shera from Junon tomorrow."

Reeve folded his arms in each other and nodded solemnly. "Well, we'll be glad to care of him until he recovers. But, about Sephiroth supposedly rising from the dead..."

"We can't believe it ourselves. We didn't start to think anything until we saw this woman who looked exactly like him. But a woman. You know? Kind of like a clone…" Tifa rubbed at her chin in thought, and then glanced back at Cloud standing against the wall. Ever since he'd heard that Sephiroth was likely alive again, he kept his harness of swords nearby practically at all times. It stood propped against the wall by his side.

"She doesn't really act like a clone, though."

"At least, not in any way that we know," Tifa offered.

"If anything, she reminds me of... Aerith. But it's still hard to say… I don't really know what to think." Cloud mimicked Reeve in crossing his arms, but hung his head low, where his eyes couldn't be seen by either of his company.

It was an unspoken truth that anything to do with Aerith, even in obscurity, was always a touchy subject. But Tifa had just realized that, too, once she heard it spoken aloud. She'd felt a familiar presence that day. It was as if Aerith had come back in a totally different body.

"I… Maybe you're right. But until we actually get a hold of her, we can't know a thing for sure. That's why we have to find her, and Sephiroth, too, to get the answers we need." Tifa nodded keenly at her cohorts.

"Tifa, you said a buddy of yours contacted you," Cloud said. "Tell Reeve about that."

"Oh right! Johnny, a longtime friend and patron from Seventh Heaven called me while vacationing in Costa del Sol. His downtime kinda got cut short by a man who resembles a 'long dead war hero'. I think we all know who that could be."

"Ah, so we've finally an eyewitness of this new or old Sephiroth being in Costa del Sol," Reeve pondered aloud, stroking his fine goatee.

"I wonder where he'd go next… Junon? Midgar?" Tifa gazed up at the plain beige ceiling.

"We gotta catch him while he's at least still in Costa del Sol…but I doubt we'll make it. Beyond the big cities, there's all these smaller places to hide in, too. We need to get him before he fades into the crowd…"

"Well, isn't this where I'm supposed to come in, Cloud?" Reeve chuckled. "We have WRO forces stationed in Costa del Sol at the moment, gearing up for the journey towards Corel. I can contact and temporarily lend them out to the search for Sephiroth. Who's on the main continent right now?"

"Well," Cloud scratched thoughtfully at his temple. "Yuffie actually just made it to Costa del Sol after seeing Vincent off with Cid in the Shera. I... wouldn't trust that birdbrain much, though. She likes to get wild there."

"Wild's an understatement," Tifa added.

"Nanaki pretty much likes to stay in Cosmo Canyon…but he might help out if we bugged him enough."

"It's your call. I'm ready to contact them at a moment's notice." Reeve tapped his fingers on the desk behind him, seemingly eager to lend his hand at the drop of a pin.

"Time to put our faith back in Yuffie, Cloud."

"Great…"

* * *

--

"I get to command WRO troops?! Sweet! Time to get militant!"

Yuffie swiftly hung up her mobile phone as she stood outside the plainly marked WRO halfway house, where a few soldiers were congregating at their leisure. She crazily waved an arm at them, to which they reluctantly returned the gesture.

"Hey guys! Sole heroine of the Planet Yuffie, at your service. Alright, let's get crackin' on flushing Sephiroth out of paradise, are ya with me?!" she exclaimed.

They stood there and shrugged curiously at each other.

"Aw c'mon, you guys. I'm your squad leader for the evening. Go forth and do my bidding… and such." The ninja girl slouched when the soldiers hadn't done so much as scratch their heads in her direction.

"Hey, we got a call from Chief!"

Time dragged by as the troop huddled amongst each other, muttering so quietly that the only way Yuffie could hear them was if she were sitting right on their heads, which wasn't out of the question. But she refrained.

"Break!" They stamped their feet and moved into formation before the girl, giving her a salute. "Captain Yuffie, what are your orders?"

"What the hell- I mean right, right! About time you got yourselves straightened up. Now here's the plan, kiddies…"


	17. Chapter 16: Somewhat Hearted

_**16: Somewhat Hearted**_

_**

* * *

**_

-----

"Something's not right," Sephiroth muttered, hovering next to the window with its blinds completely drawn. Between and beyond each plastic blade, it was only alleyway, but even so, people wandered in and out of it just like any other street. But some of the people were more than just people. They were soldiers. Soldiers of some faction he'd never recognized before. Rather flimsy looking green thumbs. Children, even.

Nevertheless, he was wary of them. They were searching for something.

He looked back.

"I think it may be time for us to depart. To someplace more fitting for the both of us. Don't you think so... Drana?" he asked, emphasizing my name like it was something to spit rather than speak.

"It doesn't matter to me," I answered listlessly.

"Where's your enthusiasm? Don't you like to travel?"

"I want to go home. I'm tired of this and I'm tired of you. I want my old life back."

"I'm hurt. We're bound together, and you want to tear that bond apart like it's nothing. And you're the one that calls me cold and cruel. The pot calling the kettle black, more like it."

I was lying under the bed. I couldn't have said why I found it good shelter; it just felt that way. Sephiroth couldn't fit under here like I could either, so that had been another plus to hiding here. At least, that's what I thought; and he didn't really do anything to prove me otherwise.

The gash in the wall was covered with a shredded sheet; the guests next door had came over earlier to chew Sephiroth out but he'd sent them running. And the corpse of that egg-like monster had been carelessly rolled out into the hallway to rot in whatever way they tended to rot.

There was no end to my wonder. How and why did the thing ever manage to enter our room without a sound, a sight, without anything? I didn't really know the ways of monsters but I knew they couldn't just randomly materialize out of nowhere like this one did. Or could they? I had no way of knowing, unless I sought an expert. And obviously, I was in no such position to do that right now.

I sighed.

I could feel my body fade into a haze like clockwork, as if it wanted to just let go of everything, to drop the charade. But what charades were there to drop? There weren't any I could think of, except for the ones imposed on me by Sephiroth. And I ignored those with fitting resentment.

I was human. And that was that.

I was my own person. And that was also that.

Nothing would change it.

But it was being changed all the same.

They pulled at my heartstrings, tugged at my brain stem, dragged on my lungs. Who were they? What were they? Phantoms and faces, tear-stained and happy. There was blood and water. I'd never really paid attention to these things running in the back of my head. Until now. Had I always been this oblivious? I wanted to laugh so hard.

For a moment, it felt like I did laugh. And the floorboards shifted as if Sephiroth moved to check if something was wrong with me. Which he probably did and thought, too.

But I was just fine. Or I seemed fine. I seemed as fine as one ever could, to another.

"I have to admit... s all this starting to grow on me? Being on the run. Though I can do without being manhandled like I'm not even a person."

"You aren't-"

"You don't get it. You'd never get it..." I chuckled thoughtfully. "It's funny because... you're so delusional. You're just a man. Just another man. You've been playing a lie for so long; it's actually come true for you... in a way. Maybe I'm to blame, or maybe not. I don't know what to think or say or do anymore. Mm..."

I saw his boots slowly shuffle across the floor, around the bed to its foot, where my head was situated. Then his knee made its descent, and his fingers splayed out in front of me. His gray, soft looking hair drifted down from the right side.

"You're calling me delusional. Am I hearing that correctly?" he said, his entire upper body still blotted out by the bed above me. I nodded, though I knew full well he wouldn't have seen that. "I'm just a man, a simple human man. And you would know this, how? Do you know what my body is like, inside and out? How it feels, how it aches, how it lives, how it breathes, how it will die, how it will be born again? Do you? If not, do you want me to show you? Do you want to feel it all, see it all for yourself? Do you want me? Like I want you?"

"Huh?"

"Your body... so full..."

Sephiroth's fingers curled in a way that his nails were starting to dig into the wood, deep and raggedly.

"You have no idea... Drana, no idea at all. You can't feel it but I can. It teases, it taunts. That energy, that life. I want to live. I want to live in you, be you, consume you until there's nothing left. But you're forever, you see…"

"You're scaring me. Y-you're talking crazy again." I cringed, pushing myself as far back from the foot of the bed as I was allowed.

"Do you know what pure Lifestream does to a living person? Or thing? It makes them drunk, makes them mad, when it comes all at once. It's like a dream... It's like paradise. The Promised Land." His fingers rolled fully into fists, which he lifted slowly and slammed fast into the floor, splintering the wood like frail twigs. I squeaked, sliding back even further.

"What?"

"You're my path to the Promised Land," Sephiroth uttered tenderly. "Yes, I see it now... and you're all mine. Now and forever…"

There was that silence again, awkward and terrifying. Though, somewhere in the distance outside, I could hear people talking and laughing, shouting out what I couldn't rightly hear, not that it mattered. But this silence. If not for the subtle noises of life beyond this hotel room, I'd have felt death eating me whole in one swift bite. I had to admit… it didn't feel like such a bad idea right then and there as the bed flew into the air, hovering along the ceiling.

"Come here. Please, I don't want to get rough. You wouldn't like it if I did. You don't like it even now... so make it easy on yourself. Please. Come."

He almost sounded sincere; his voice gave me pain in my chest, as well as strange bubbles in my stomach. Going to him meant harm; there was no doubt about that. There was never any doubt. But my body seemed to be so torn over it. I'd have liked to beat myself up to keep from feeling this way, but it just wasn't like me.

I found myself sidling along the wall on my knees towards the desk before I even realized it.

Sephiroth dropped the bed back where it was, carefully and quietly. He then started to make his move. He held out his hand like a father to his child or a savior to his saved. Commanding and wanting, yet conveying some sort of security I saw was misplaced. Was it an act to capture me?

"You're _my _treasure."

I pushed the chair at him as hard as I could before trying to scramble under the desk. But I was already caught, crushed face down against the floor beneath his body. He had nearly knocked the air out of me, but I had just managed to save myself from being thrown unconscious.

His frame felt simultaneously hot and cold on my back. It was an odd thing to notice. But that wasn't what worried me.

"I still can't help but think... what if your body is really as female as you so fiercely claim... Hmm? Funny little ideas; it's as if I'm not thinking with my brain at all but with... Ha. I suppose I'm still human after all? Or I merely maintain one's flesh. I like flesh." Sephiroth pulled me upright with him, while he sat across my legs. His forearm was drawn hard over my throat, the muscle flexing ever so slightly.

"I…"

"I wonder... If I tore off your skin... what would I see? It's tempting. But I think I'll hold off on that. I don't have much heart to damage you now, because treasures should be cherished."

* * *

--

"Poor thing, he's like a child in a man's body…"

"Well, he certainly sounds like it sometimes. I still think he's scary."

"I don't think many people have gotten close enough to be able to look past the frightening exterior. I've seen only a glimmer. I bet if he were treated like a regular person, he'd react like one, too. Instead of being, you know, creepy."

"Hey... You're smart. I doubt I have the guts to try something like that, though. He's so strong…"

"You're strong, too, you know. He's strong because you let him. But if you let yourself... who knows what would happen? You might even be as scary as him?"

"Hey, don't joke about that. I don't wanna be compared to something or someone that's like a monster. I don't want to be a monster…"

"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. But just remember: He's as strong as you, and you're as strong as him. But you can be even stronger if you try. Okay? Now, go get 'em, tiger!"

* * *

--

They were getting closer, whoever they were. And the closer they got, the more Sephiroth reacted like a psychopath, however calm he was. But he could sense that they weren't well meaning, that much I could see, even sense myself, through him.

He kept me near, and even nearer still, when he sat down to the computer and stared at the documents he'd been poring over ever since we came to Costa del Sol. I was wedged quite firmly between his thighs, his right arm hooked under mine and held tight against my breast. While he studied them as usual, I myself refused to look at the texts on screen.

"So... you were dead before?" I asked tonelessly.

"What?" he said.

"I was just thinking of why you took me in the first place. Because you think I brought you back to life somehow… So you had to be dead or whatever for me to have done it... right?" I twiddled my thumbs for a time. I didn't know what I was doing. The words were just coming out of my mouth on their own. But even if I had no idea, my body knew.

"Yes, I was dead. I was murdered." He stared ahead at the screen, grayed and yellowed around the edges, with its black blocky text that almost bled together and made the words look a bit illegible.

"Murdered? Gee, I can't imagine why," I said, sighing. As if he could see me roll my eyes in the monitor, he tugged an arm sharply under my chin. I choked then corrected myself after he lowered his limb. "A shame, I mean. A shame…"

"Murdered is such a strong word. But I can't think of anything else, surprisingly."

"You said people were coming. And that we were going to leave. Well… fill me in on your plans?" I scoffed.

First his nose came to brush my ear, even questionably nuzzle it, and then delicately came his cheek. He took a slow deep breath, a keen hiss between his teeth. "Actually, I want to see what they're capable of. But it's been over an hour. And they haven't bothered with this hotel at all. I'm beginning to think they're just poor rookies. I might have to go out and show them a thing or two."

"Because you're an invincible soldier elite, huh…" I exhaled tiredly. The confidence thing was indeed wearing thin. But he had to be admired for upholding it as long as he did.

"Grown into something of a smart mouth, have we?" His smirk was blistering on the side of my face; I didn't have to see it to know it. There was that warmth, that heat again. And then it cooled into nothing. It was him, I was positive now.

Emotions flared, large or small, it didn't matter, but the heat would blare out at me like a dozen crashing bells. When the calm came, it was chilly. But there was no frost. I was glad, because I hated the feeling, even though I was a native to Icicle. The frost seemed so unhappy, following me, always biting. It was like a lost, teething child at best, and a miserable one that loved to make miserable company.

Why was I able to feel him? Was the bond real, how ever unwanted it was on my end? I gagged at the thought. Being spiritually connected to this man was not something I wanted to make a side job out of. I wanted out. But it looked bleaker by the day, ever since the day he'd first kidnapped me.

Sephiroth suddenly went hot.

"What's wrong?" I asked after nearly a full minute of delay.

"What do you mean?"

"I… Y-You're hot. Like something's bothering you…"

"It's nothing," he replied curtly.

I squirmed a little in his lap. And for a second, I thought that the heat had actually begun to blister for a second. What did it mean? Of course it meant Sephiroth was preoccupied by something. The question was, what for? He didn't want me to know this time around. He was usually talkative for the tall, dark and silent type he appeared to be. It was probably that he'd finally decided to slide into that actual stereotype and clam up.

But now I was too curious for my own good.

"Wasn't it you that said we shared a bond now? So that means you have to tell me what's wrong with you," I told him matter-of-factly.

"No," he chimed mechanically.

"Well, then you're a liar. We'll never have a bond; I'll never be your treasure or your road to some promised place of yours. I won't be your anything because you can't share what's on your mind." I knew my retort was a bit too snooty for me to see the light of day after this.

"Yes, call me a liar as if I care," he snickered.

"You do care."

"Wrong."

"Right," I said.

"You want me to lose my composure. Not clever enough, little Drana…"

"I think I know now… You're still thinking about my body, huh? You want it so badly?

"Take it." I was doomed now. Those two words were words I never thought I'd say. I was doomed. But I was ready. I was ready for whatever might come. I was ready to become something that wouldn't exactly be me anymore. Something tainted? Something pure? Something… normal? Something meaningless? I didn't know.

"You have to want it, too," he said simply enough. "Otherwise it's not worth it."

"What does that mean?"

Sephiroth said nothing else. He just stared at the computer screen, searching over those words, sentences, phrases, probably not even reading them anymore, but just hoping something would pop out and manifest as the truth to my existence and his revival. But it was obvious it wouldn't come yet. To my ongoing relief.

But now there was another thing to worry about.

"What do you mean? You want me to want you, too? Is that-"

"I don't know. Now stop asking me."

I was truly at a loss.

So he wasn't as soulless as he made himself out to be. He wasn't as cruel as I thought. He'd kept me captive with him. The violence wasn't so much physical as verbal, our clash as to whether I was human or not, my origins, the 'powers' that slept somewhere within me. A lasting battle because he hadn't enough proof to show me otherwise.

For one thing out of this whole ordeal, I didn't care if it were lies that gave me strength; I wanted to be human just like everyone else. But that was only if it _was _a lie. I still believed in my humanity. Something as low as a monster or as high as Sephiroth's so-called evolved state, I didn't care for any. I just cared about being human. It felt so much better than anything else.

And this moment. This one moment had shown me that he might've had or has a heart, just that it was small and hidden beneath begrudging cold. The lonely type of cold that only knew sadness and anger.

Was this what she meant? This coldness was the barrier that separated him from being human like the rest of us? And that if I was strong, I'd be able to break him out of it?

It was a scary notion, one of the scariest yet in all its simplicity.

A journey through the soul of Sephiroth. In my mind, it sounded like something from which no one would ever return if they tried.

The bile was bittersweet in the back of my throat. The thoughts were just too much. But what was even more unbearable was the fact that I was intrigued now. My gut urged me to give it a try, to solve the case of Sephiroth and free myself along the way.

I failed to fathom how things would likely play out. What would happen to the man if he became more like a human? What would happen to me? What…

"Stop thinking, _please_," Sephiroth exploded.

"Huh?"

"If you thought I was a psychopath now? Oh, if I have to keep catching random words out of your dizzy little brain…"

"Wait, you can... you can hear things out of my head?" Things just keep getting better, I pondered bitterly. The 'bond.' Had it become so strong already that we'd now be hearing each other's thoughts? I knew I would've been more terrified if I thought on more than just getting away from him. But my privacy I felt was hardly violated, so I was merely baffled instead. "So... you even heard-"

"You won't win me over."

I frowned. "You're lying again. But you believe it's so true… It makes me sad. Because on the inside, you're so lonely. You want to let someone in... but you've been hurt so much. She told me so. And I see it, too."

"She?"

"If circumstances were different, I might've liked…"

--

Yuffie was all too tempted to head down to the beach and have fun with the boys. The ones on the main continent were so toned compared to the twiggy males back in her homeland. Wutain slenderness was treasured within its borders but beyond that, bodies were about muscle. That perfect V-shape. And the beach bums had it.

She wanted to play with them, despite her important mission.

The ninja girl was glad to be depended on by Cloud and the others; the only problem was that her mission took place in a locale that was all about fun. Instead, she was engaging in a seek-and-not-especially-destroy-anything objective. It was lamentable at best.

"Great Leviathan, why did they have to shack up in Costa del Sol, of all places?" Yuffie heaved her shoulders and wearily flailed her arms. She swung her head from to and fro, watching the locals and tourists stroll by, merry as could be. "Why can't they make this easy?"

"How is this for easy?"

"Huh? I thought you're supposed to be looking for Sephiroth, not buggin' me."

The ninja girl put on an annoyed face and slowly turned to her addresser. She didn't recognize the voice but she thought it sounded a little too stuffy for its own good. If it was a WRO soldier, she was ready to put on a stuffy face of her own and chew him out.

"I- Oh." Yuffie stopped her slouching and stood straight, all during a single wave. "Hi. Sephiroth, right? How's it goin', old buddy?"

"So you're the one calling the shots over these children?" He quirked an eyebrow down at the girl. "You're even one yourself."

"I know," Yuffie chuckled nervously, "pretty freaky, right? But what's more freaky is the fact that YOU'RE ALIVE. _YOU ARE ALIVE_."

"Don't hurt her, Sephiroth," I fretfully called out from behind him.

"Oh don't worry. I'll just have some fun with her instead."


	18. Chapter 17: Chase

_**17: Divine Comedy Chase

* * *

**_

_**---  
**_

_"CLOUD! I found him, but get over here now! I don't care if it takes two days, a week or what! He's your nemesis, YOU fight-- Aiee!"_

_"… did you say Cloud? Give me that phone."_

_"No, it's mine, I paid top gil for that!"_

_"Stop being so rough with her…"_

_"You heard the la-"_

The message was cut short after a sharp clack. Then all that came next was dead air.

Cloud snapped his phone closed and shoved it back into his pocket. He looked up at Tifa who stood nearby, leaning against a building whose foundation was largely made of cobblestone. She returned his gaze with those big brown eyes, troubled. Cloud's eyes, on the other hand, seemed completely blank, if but a little pensive.

"Okay, so Yuffie probably wasn't such a good idea, after all," he voiced in feigned exhaustion.

"We have to hurry. I'm worried about her. Actually, I'm worried about pretty much all of Costa del Sol. We don't know the extent of Sephiroth's power this time around. I'm hoping it's not worse." The woman shook her head and kicked at stray stones in the alleyway they occupied. She pushed herself from the wall and took a few steps out into the street. "Hoping it's not worse… but we gotta get there. Now."

"Cid doesn't get here until later tonight," Cloud said.

"Great... I like how we're usually behind things a day or two. You think we'd have learned by now..." Tifa bent down to adjust her boots after having knocked the back of them out of place on the cobblestone wall. Her companion walked up next to her, gazing out onto the square where Kalm citizens and WRO troops scuttled about their evening business.

"We're not late… Just a little unprepared. I don't know about you, but I wasn't expecting Sephiroth to come back to life, if anything. That voice... Unless someone's made a living out of impersonating him, it's..."

"What about that woman, what's her name, Drana? What is she?"

Cloud sighed and shook his head. "No clue. But there's obviously something strange about her... besides looking like a gender bent ex-general."

"Cid better hurry," Tifa huffed.

* * *

--

It was late evening now and the town had gotten livelier outside the window. There was a restaurant towards the other end of the alley where quite a few people seemed to be flocking for the night. But as usual, I was stuck inside with Sephiroth. The partying called to me. Or rather just the life that bounced around outside. It felt so much more tempting now, having been tired of seclusion from other people, other humans.

It was nice seeing that girl with the short hair and giant metal star running with Sephiroth hot on her tail. I found myself rooting for her, though I didn't do it out loud. I hated to see his scowls so I chose not to incur their wrath. But still, there was no person I'd ever seen as lively as that girl he was fighting earlier today. She survived his relentlessness easily enough, though with enough close calls to wonder if she was even still alive after a mean retreat with her party of beige-uniformed buddies.

Sephiroth held back like I pleaded, but he still seemed too rough. I had only to be glad he didn't kill anyone.

"You shouldn't be worried about them," he said out of nowhere. "I spared their pathetic lives. But you still sit there and pull _my _hair out over them."

"You didn't have to bother them at all. We could have ran... Now don't you think they'll come back bigger and stronger?"

"I enjoy a challenge."

I jumped up on the bed and curled into a ball, staring at the damaged wall. I remembered what that strange voice once told me. I was as helpful as he was harmful. But if that was true, how was I? Were it tucked all deep inside of me, I would've been annoyed. I didn't want to have to dig for it. I wanted it to be right there at my fingertips. But some things were never so easy, as Sephiroth had put it so glibly.

Inside, I was invigorated to fight, to protect someone or something. But first, I had to actually figure out what to do with myself. And I had to break free from Sephiroth at last.

"You can't do it, can you?" he asked. I felt his shadow creeping over my back and across my outstretched arm. "You can't stop driving me mad."

"But you're already-"

"Your voice, sweet and mild as it is, won't stay out of my head. You're either doing it on purpose or you really don't know your own strength…"

"My strength, huh…" I clutched my hand tight and stared at it.

His own hand suddenly came down, softly, on my fist. I gasped silently and flinched, surprised. Then Sephiroth bent down over me, pressing his cheek to my own.

"We're leaving tonight. The ships are docked. We'll make our way across the ocean. I should hope you aren't prone to getting seasick, my dear."

"No, I don't get seasick," I grumbled.

"Perfect. Get your things. We leave almost immediately."

"What things-"

--

Instead of immediately going to the docks, Sephiroth herded me on down to a part of the beach that abutted them and seemed largely unoccupied by beach goers. Here, the sands stretched underneath and beyond to the ship harbor blocked off by gigantic boulders. In the dark of the evening, they looked a bit perilous, and I hoped my captor didn't intend for us to climb them.

I wanted to say something but chose not to, for reasons even I didn't know.

Strength.

It sounded sort of enticing the more I thought about it. But not so much that every second, it was on my mind. No, it wasn't that way at all. I just wanted a means of getting back to my old life which had just about been entirely swept away before my eyes. Though I'd realized that I was probably exaggerating, it still bothered me to know that I was once just a carefree woman from Icicle and now, I was caught in an unknown void with someone else trying to decide for me if I was human or monster and how or why I should live after the fact.

I stopped dead in my tracks and squatted down in the cool, fine sand.

"What are you doing?" Sephiroth asked, standing behind me.

"I'm just... thinking."

"And you think you have time for this?"

"I want to be strong… I'm tired of being a hostage, your hostage… I want to be strong." I poked a finger deep into the sand, winding it into an inward swirling circle.

I heard his boots shift across the sand back towards me, but I'd caught him with a gaze over my shoulder before he laid a hand on me. Even at night, his eyes darkly glowed bluish-green. If they weren't so animal and unfeeling, they might have been beautiful.

"Ah…" For the first time ever, I saw Sephiroth's face turn to perfect awe. I had no idea what he was looking at, whether it was directly down at me, or the ground, or maybe even the sea beyond. But on his face he wore surprise, clear as the moon would be if it were out tonight.

"What?" I asked. "What's wrong?"

"... nothing." The surprise melted away fast and his expression had returned to wooden un-emotion. "I thought I saw something... but it's nothing. Now get up. We have a ship to catch."

* * *

--

The night sky was clear, save for a few straggling clouds and a dark oblong creeping along the horizon. A low drone preceded it throughout the air. To some, it would have appeared as a large black bug without wings making its way to harass the next city. To others…

It was the Shera.

Shera had been Cid Highwind's most favored ship since the aftermath of Meteorfall. Deep within the earth, he found this ancient, technological gem and made it into something greater, even renaming it after his now wife, Shera. The interesting thing, however, was that it indeed tended to resemble some sort of giant bug with propellers. One had to thank the Ancients for their choice in such natural, organic designs.

It was nearing the limits of Kalm, the fields to its east near the ocean edge. There was a landing for airships, thus being the perfect place for Cid to berth. Cloud and Tifa had been waiting there for the last two hours, sitting around and watching the grasslands in its nighttime lull.

Eventually Barret, the burliest and surliest of them all, came to join them along with Denzel and Marlene, though it was way past their bedtime. They were all too eager to see Cloud since they'd heard he was back in Kalm.

"Cloud!"

"Cloud, Cloud!"

The kid duo came to dance around the blond-haired man while pulling on his arms. Cloud himself couldn't help but smile a rare smile of his and bent down on one knee to greet them.

"Hey guys, how've you been?" he asked.

"Great, Cloud! Look, Mr. Reeve finally gave me an honorary WRO badge for helping people out. Doesn't it look cool?" Denzel tugged at the chrome blue badge pinned to his shirt. Marlene pushed the boy to the side and laughed.

"You're such a showoff! Look, Cloud, did Tifa tell you about the new apron she got me for working at Seventh Heaven?"

"Look who's talking about showing off," Denzel teased. They giggled together like normal children did.

Cloud looked up at Tifa, whose face was caught in a half-smile, half-frown. Something was waiting to be said but neither of the two acted upon it.

"A'ight, kids, break it up! Family reunions come later," Barret bellowed. Despite the situation, he sounded jovial, as jovial as his unruly personality could convey.

As for the big man himself, he swung a heavy arm down on Cloud's shoulder and drew him in to rumple his hair with that telltale prosthetic hand. The smaller man stumbled under the rough but friendly handling.

"What's up, my spiky haired lil brutha," he guffawed. "I heard we got a shit-uation."

"Barret, watch your mouth!" Tifa scowled.

"My bad. We got babies on board."

"Daddy, we're not babies!" Marlene retorted.

"Yeah, we're young adults!"

"Alright, guys, cuteness aside…" Cloud chuckled.

"Cid should be arriving soon." Tifa pointed west towards the sky above town, where a dark spot was edging its way nearer and nearer. The droning was louder now, but it wasn't so deafening as to raise the dead.

"What's the plan?"

"We might be flying a little blind," Cloud offered a little reluctantly. "We lost contact with Yuffie so we're not updated on Sephiroth's whereabouts… But it's generally agreed that we're headed to Costa del Sol."

"Man, that guy's a roach! I thought we blasted his ass to pieces." Barret was close to slapping his knee like a hick. He wasn't far off, being from what used to be the small coal mines town of Corel, something of a hub of hickdom.

"Barret!" Tifa snapped, and then sighed in defeat. "Anyways… We thought so, too. Cloud even saw it happen up close and I trust him… But. But, something's not right. We think this woman who looks like a female version of him has something to do with it. Comprehend?"

"I… No. But let's get dis show on tha road!"

"Marlene, how did you…?"

"I learned to tune him out. It's fun sometimes!"

* * *

--

I'd never really pictured myself climbing rocks as much as I was doing so right now. Trying to make it through Coral Valley was nothing compared to this, especially since the majority of my trip around it was done by falling any and everywhere. It was hilarious, though, because this was nothing more than part of a simple barricade to landlock Costa del Sol's harbor. And Coral Valley was just as it was called, a valley.

There was a world of difference between the two. Just as there was a world of difference in Sephiroth's skill at climbing and my own.

I was terrible. It was the final time my butt hit the sand as he'd ordered me to scale the rocks.

"Do you want me to carry you?" he said, mockery in his voice.

"No! You've carried me enough; I want to do this on my own," I mumbled towards the end. But I didn't even have to lift a hand or foot to find myself crushed back to the earth by the sheer scale of this wall. I let all the air pop out of my lungs as I fell back into the sand. "Maybe not…"

"What a spoilsport. Would you rather I tossed you over?" I heard the definite quirk in his voice. I looked up at him as he stood to my right. There was a clear sign of mirth on his face. I was creeped out and curious at the same time.

"Wh-what? Stop looking like that."

Sephiroth's expression had quickly turned to darkness, as if on perfect cue. Yet, that darkness wasn't really darkness but probably just a sheer blank. Shadows contorted it a little as he bent down to pick me up, making him look doll-like and sinister.

"Really now, stop it... stop..."

He had one of his perfect holds on my wrist, which he pulled just over his shoulder, in turn drawing my face closer to his.

"Hmm. I have just thought of something…" Sephiroth ran his tongue fluidly over his lips before drawing in deadly closer to my face. My body felt as if it shivered like some nasty goo lying on the ground. I hated to know what he was going to do next.

But it happened so quickly.

He fell over me, moaning lowly against my chin. I yelped but made no effort to really cry out. I bled everywhere as his teeth broke the flesh of my lower lip. But it wasn't the kind of blood I was looking for. Or hoping for. No, it was bright and shining, and green and white. Some of it floated high into the sky like fiery insects while the rest trickled down Sephiroth's mouth and neck.

"Taste..."

"You psycho!" I screeched, swinging my fists into his neck. Neither my words nor my attack fended him off, he seemed to be somewhere else entirely. His face was intoxication personified. His feline eyes glared right back at me, through me. Only they weren't feline.

For a second, they were human. Utterly human.

I saw it so clearly in the glowing light of my so-called blood. They were human eyes, looking unusually young for how old Sephiroth appeared to be. But even then, that was probably debatable. He had been dead, after all, and for how long, I couldn't have imagined. So time might have stopped for him. Or not. Who knew for sure? Certainly not I.

"You feel so much like... Mother. But you feel... even more."

My skin smoldered. What he did caused him to light up like a candle, the heat without the flame. But that wasn't the only thing I felt. I sensed something hard about Sephiroth, his body, pressed firmly to my hip.

"Th, that's-" I pushed away and clamped my bleeding mouth shut to stop from blurting my disgust outright.

"I must look like a fool. The desire was too great to ignore any longer..." His motions against me slowed to something a little less frenetic, and the heat quickly faded. My captor hung over me like a net waiting to fall, but found himself snagged on some unseen hook. I sighed once Sephiroth had had drawn himself off of me.

And his eyes were cat's eyes once more.

"But I felt Mother... I felt a... mother-" He jumped to his feet, straightening out the dusty black tank top that he wore, a hand clamped hard over his mouth. His eyes were glazed with venom. Through his palm, Sephiroth warned, "You will pay."

"Wait, what?" I staggered far away from him, baffled beyond belief. "You... you jumped on ME!"

"I forsook humanity long ago. None so low would ever walk by my side again. I go with Mother. As for you... the decision's still up in the air. Like you'll soon be."

"I-"

My hand reached out to him, that wanting kind of reach, but there was nothing I needed from him, nothing. He wanted it. His slapped into my palm almost seamlessly and I rose into the air like a scrap of paper caught in an updraft. I knew my throat gaped to let out a scream but it emitted little more than a croak. And as I sailed over the rock wall, I saw Sephiroth still clinging to my hand, long silver hair whipping behind him.

I was amazed at how everything could be so unforeseen, so random. Like Sephiroth and so much he'd done so far. He was not so different from me. He could teeter-totter, too. Though I tried to be the same way. I tried to believe I wasn't what I might be.

How funny it was to ponder all this flying through the air. And with Sephiroth below, leering up at me to stop driving him to lunacy with my thoughts-- I knew that look now-- I had to admit it actually made me feel as if I were capable of doing something now, of defending myself in some radical way. And that I could probably annoy the man to death.

"This is our stop."

It was for a second that I floated in mid-air but felt gravity wanting to pull me back to earth. So to earth, I fell. I'd tumbled side-first onto hard, flat ground. But as soon as I'd fallen, Sephiroth had picked me up and set me on my feet.

"Why do you have to be so rough?" I leered hard at him, then suddenly felt the need to say, "And I hope you don't stop to do that every chance you get because it's... wrong."

"Stop affecting me," he told me.

"I don't have control over that!" I slapped my way out of his arms and broke into a harried jog down the abandoned part of the harbor we stood on.

My arm jerked back as if I got caught on something but there was nothing. Sephiroth stood there a few yards away from where I left him. I stopped in my tracks and turned towards him with a look of shock. I couldn't pull my arm down from its being outstretched.

"Hey! Stop it!" I shouted.

He began his advance.

"I've told you before and I'll tell you again," he voiced clearly and loudly. "I can't let you go until I know the truth to everything. No more misinformation. No more being kept in the dark. There's something happening and I demand to know what it is and what you are, and why you affect me so much. So calm yourself."

"What about me-"

"We get on that ship and we'll see." I followed his lifted arm over my head to one of the huge shadowy ships that were docked nearby. "It goes to Junon."

* * *

--

_From Sixth: It's funny, you know I don't think I'm able to write Barret very well. I largely disregarded him for most of the game…and…maybe the movie, too, that I kinda feel like "Who the fuck is THIS guy?" a lot. I hate him, ha. Well, I guess it's better that he's the stereotypical black person than I am. I'd have slit me own didgeridoo. And I am quite amazed that I was able to spell that correctly. Well, anyways, back to my precarious writings._


	19. Chapter 18: Chase: Waywards

_**18: Divine Comedy Chase: Waywards**_

"_Sometimes I feel like I'm running in circles. But then there's a snag, and then a rip and I'm forced to jump onto another circle or some other funky shape. And then here comes Sephiroth, something I'd say with a roll of my eyes. He changed the rules too much, if you ask me. But then…I wasn't asked…" -Drana

* * *

_

_---  
_

"Poor Vincent… What's wrong with him?"

"Is it just me or does he not look as pale as he used to?"

"I'll say."

Everyone was onboard the Shera, including Marlene and Denzel despite protest from Tifa and Barret. Reeve had even defected, in a loose sense of the word, from his WRO office duties in Kalm. However, some of the WRO were also given to helping Cid manage things, so he hadn't really escaped his job as one might have thought, merely the building.

While aboard the ship, Cloud, Tifa, and Reeve had taken to the sickbay where Vincent was situated in his so-called coma. When they'd arrived there, they saw he was accompanied by a WRO medical officer. She was a petite girl, even a passable image of a preteen Marlene. But when she spoke, an amazingly rich voice poured out.

"His vital signs are partially unreadable, nevertheless fixated at the bare minimum of stability. We just can't figure out why he isn't waking up." She rapped her fingers against the clipboard she carried in her arms. Tifa came to stand next to her and bent over Vincent's sleeping face.

"Hmm, well I'm no medical buff so there's really nothing I could offer myself," she said with a quirked eyebrow down at the black-haired man. She delicately placed her palm on his forehead, pulling back a few locks of hair to better see his closed eyes. "I wonder what's going on in there..."

"More like, I want to know what happened," Cloud interjected.

"Oh hey, what about Vincent's arm?" the woman blurted out. "It's supposed to be what makes him turn into a monster, right?"

"Well, the only one who'd really know would've been Hojo, but he's dead, remember?"

"Even so, look. It's gone. What's it mean? Was that the only thing keeping him conscious-- or alive-- all this time? Will he stop turning into a monster now? What do you think?"

"I can't really think anything," Cloud said in admittance, a hand cupped over his mouth. "We can wait 'til he's awake and ask him ourselves."

"You're no fun."

"That asshole hasn't woke up yet?! Give 'im some tea. Oughta perk him right up!"

The brash tone that always preceded the proud and angry Cid rushed into the sickbay. He himself came in not a few moments later, with an ever-present cigarette dangling between his lips. The thirty-something pilot strutted up to Vincent's body and knocked hard on the table he laid upon.

"Lucky Vince's out like a light, otherwise he would've jumped up to strangle you right about now," Tifa said.

"Aw hell." Cid scratched at the back of his head.

"So, excuse me," the medical officer chimed in, "what crises are the Planet's heroes in for today?"

"It's not a crisis just yet, I'm sure," Tifa replied. "Just seeking out an old blast from the past…"

Cid pulled a lighter from his pocket and lit the cigarette in his mouth. He took a steady drag and exhaled smoke towards the ceiling. He then strolled on over to Cloud, who was leaning like the usual wallflower against the wall. "I tell ya once, Cloud. I'm not havin' my ship get blown to shit again! Your spiky-headed little ass better keep all clones, drones, what the fuck ever off and away from my darlin' or there'll be hell to pay!"

"Yeah, yeah, Cid, I got it," the man huffed.

"Just letting ya know, friend, haha!" The old pilot cackled, slapping Cloud cheerfully on the back and then departed in the direction of the door from the sickbay. "Oh, one more thing. Get Vincent's ass up and rarin' to go! This ship ain't meant for slackers."

"Easier said than done, Mr. Cid," the medical officer replied. But he was already gone. She sighed and tapped her foot thrice on the floor. "Oh sometimes, he just expects the impossible."

"We really do need him awake, though. We might need his help." Tifa leaned against the examination table Vincent was stretched over, careful not to bear down on his arm. The limb itself looked so frail and white, blotched with scaly purple skin; she feared touching it would make it crumble into salt and dust, though deep down she knew better. "Cloud, I know what you'll say but... what do you think?"

"Tifa... I'm sure we'll find a way. And he'll pull through and wake up in no time. Vincent is stronger than you think; that's even a given, I'd say. So are we. So when push comes to shove, we can handle ourselves, too."

"I know but... You can't blame me for worrying."

Before she knew it, Cloud had come over to rest a hand on her shoulder. She blinked up and at him, and a soft smile graced her lips. The woman inhaled as deep as she could and very slowly sighed.

"I wonder how Aerith is," Tifa voiced suddenly.

"Huh?"

"I wonder how she is," she repeated. "What's she doing right now? And I… What would she say about that woman? It feels like her of all people would know about what's been happening. But since she's not here... asking's out of the question."

"If we could talk to the Planet like she did, maybe…"

"Oh Cloud."

* * *

--

It felt like I was reliving the first day I ever rode a ship to sea. I was leaving home for the eastern continent, where I'd start my journey searching for a place warm and green to settle. But my journey had instead morphed into an abduction fit for only the chaotic world of truest fantasy or nightmare or any combination of the two. Then again, I should have known that anything was possible in a land and on a planet such as this.

One of the few but glaring distinctions in experiences, however, was that I was stuck down in the brig with Sephiroth. He refused to be spotted this time-- the whole of Costa del Sol had been alerted to our presence since his tussle with that girl-- so we laid low below deck, amongst crates as big as the smallest shacks. But we weren't the only occupants down here. Aside from the occasional shipmate checking up on inventory, rats stowed away with us as well.

And they weren't the meek little creatures I thought they'd be. Instead, they were sniveling beasts that tried to swarm me every chance they got.

"Aren't you bothered?" I asked the man as I batted a curious rat away from my feet.

He sat across from me, his back against one of the huge crates, bobbing his foot up and down as if he hadn't a care in the world. My captor had gazed up at me after a moment and smirked fleetingly. "Oh, they're not interested in me. They see a tantalizing morsel and wish to taste it. As like I have."

"You're sickening… But these pests are even... worse!" I barked at one particular vermin trying to sneak up my leg. It squealed and dashed back into the shadows cast by the containers we hid between.

"You deny the facts even with cold, hard proof before you," Sephiroth grumbled. "I'll say this: No human is that stubborn to deny every single thing under the sun. You need your foundation shaken a little more…"

"No! Stay away!" I snapped, letting a fist fly at him. I wasn't sure if I had hit him or not, because I'd done it so fast, lost in my own outburst. But when I'd opened my eyes again, I saw Sephiroth's face turn a bright red as it spread from his cheek. "I... I'm sorry. I mean, no, no I'm not. I-I'm not! Ouch!"

Amidst my confusion, a rat had finally gotten past my defenses and took a bite out of me. I kicked my foot and the rodent flew through the air and dropped back onto its feet. It might as well had landed on its back when it started convulsing and foaming green at the mouth.

It only took a few more flops for it fall into absolute stillness.

Sephiroth and I stared down at it then up at each other in curiosity.

"... do I even want to know?" I said.

"Your body's more potent than I thought. Lower life forms can't handle such pure Lifestream in their systems…"

"Oh don't start with that."

"Don't start with denying the facts again," he sang.

"I should hit you more often…"

"It's not in your nature." He smirked again and then turned his eyes back to the dead rat. He kicked it into the shadows with the toe of his boot, as if he knew it pained me to see it. I neglected to nod my thanks because if I hadn't thought of it, I would've done so in forgetting who my company was.

"... what do either of us know what's in my nature? I thought this 'journey' was to find exactly that out."

"The falsity that you cling to so fiercely," Sephiroth noted, his tone strangely soft.

I rolled my eyes towards the steel gray ceiling. "It's called being a human, thanks... And it's real."

As I returned my glare to Sephiroth's face, it'd grown angry. The emotion in him had managed to permeate even his skin and form a dark red cloud around his head. I gawked in disbelief. He looked ready to attack me, and not even in that funny way he'd done just before we got on the ship. It felt like real malice.

"What's so good about being human? Tell me. They're the ones that destroy the Planet you so love. And for what? Money. Power. Luxury. They don't care. They are evil. And you want to be like them, which in itself would mean you're evil as well. They took Mother away, the one good thing that ever happened to this world. She and I would've made it something golden. But they took her away. Those fucking... humans took her away."

His harsh words made me shrink.

"Look what you're infecting me with. I am... _not... _human. I am a superior being, one with Mother. Godhood is my birthright… And you're seeding me with such disease that I'll no longer be worth it. I should just kill you now and forget _all _of this, but, I can't bring myself to. The power that lies within you. It's all mine… All mine."

The red cloud had turned a sickly purple. Whatever Sephiroth felt still festered inside him. It had grown bigger above and around his head, a gloomy, livid halo. If I had one of my own, its color would have been dull white with fear. I just couldn't understand most of what he said. But the vehemence over his mother was something unfit to watch. I'd never seen anyone so outspoken about their mother, not even kids like Bon and Kale in Icicle. It was odd, very odd.

"N… Not all humans are bad. That's-"

"Oh, there always has to be exceptions, right? No one thing is complete without exceptions. But I'm not looking at the exceptions. I'm looking at the _whole_. Understand?" His arm snaked over the back of my neck and pulled me face-first into his chest. I pushed at him, to no avail, to catch my breath. "Humans. They are scum. If I wanted, I could start plans anew for this earth and wipe them out at last... but not until I figure you out. It gnaws at my mind, you see. Like worms with teeth."

"Wow... you're... Y-you… What happened to you to be like this?" I said solemnly.

"Life."

I bit my lip and darted my eyes along the floor, careful not to spy the frothing dead rat again. I wasn't ready to believe humans weren't the bad things Sephiroth said they were. I'd lived amongst them for so long. They had been so nice to me. But Icicle was the only home I'd had so far, and they were few. I couldn't find much to say after that. But I did, however, manage to slip from his grasp and crawl to the other side of our hidden corner.

He just stared at me instead of making a common move to grab me. When several long minutes had passed, he sighed and hung his head towards the floor.

"It's been years since I've actually bothered to sound dejected. Years… Maybe it's about time for a pick-me-up."

I sensed my pupils shrink to pinpoints when I saw Sephiroth moving in my direction, like the stalking cat he sometimes seemed. There was that same emotionless expression, those same drunk but fluid body movements, as the first time he'd come after me in that way.

I was hard pressed against the cold, metal floor with Sephiroth draped all over me. He body was an anchor, that any effort to move only made him heavier and more restricting.

"No!" I barked hoarsely. He started to nip at my neck as if to tear it all away.

And then I saw her.

It was rare to not see her when I was in some form of consciousness that wasn't awake. No, I was wide awake while my captor tried to feed on me like a leech. Her face was a bit of a smile but most of a frown as she saw us. I knew she disapproved of what I'd gotten myself into, though I hardly encouraged it.

_Hmm… I think he likes you. Or at least, your body. I'll admit that I doubt anybody as power-hungry would hesitate to do the same._

She shook her head and walked a half circle around us, then stopped just a foot away from the dead rat that lay in the shadows. She knelt down, placing a hand over the once frothing thing, and shook her head at that, too.

"I... I didn't want it to die but…" I frowned in almost the exact same way that she did. And a nod was returned.

_Don't worry, I understand. But you know what? Sephiroth's right. The sheer energy in your body is just too much for small things like this to handle. It's too much even for big things._

"How… how do you know?" I asked. Sephiroth shifted atop me, his hands gripping my shoulders so tightly that they burned.

_The Lifestream is a part of us all. Most things can't handle its force while still in the world of the living, you know? It's only until death do we begin to understand what it's all about. And... what we've been missing, too._

She reached towards Sephiroth's shoulder and tapped it lightly. He didn't seem to notice while in his preoccupation, but his body jerked unconsciously as though it was noted all the same.

_I think it might even be happening to him, too. Your effect on him. He might be seeing with clear eyes now... though he fights it._

"I, I don't understand…"

"Who are you talking to?" Sephiroth panted.

_He's changing. And you're changing with him. What you'll become... it'll take time to find out for sure…_

"Please, tell me what I'm supposed to know," I pleaded. She smiled the softest smile that could ever exist in any world, or any reality, or any dimension. But I'd only frowned in return, and my mouth fell agape. I wasn't sure of what I saw if I really saw anything at all. But I came to realize that I might not have been what I always thought. "Tell me what I…"

_Silly, don't you know? You're Drana. That's all there is to it. And that's all you have to remember. Just so you don't go spiraling into more crippling self-doubt. It's not a pretty sight; I've seen it happen myself. It's a sad thing._

"But then... who are you?" I lifted a finger right up to her face, where the eerie smile was still pasted so well and so brightly. She blinked in a way that would've been totally imperceptible if one weren't looking straight into her face. It was like a glitch in her image, a flinch. A human flinch. Then she shrugged.

_Since you're like a sister to me, I guess I can tell you. I'm Aerith. Pleased to meet you._

"Aer... ith." A sense of comfort washed over me, even as Sephiroth still gripped me in this violating way. It was like I met the Planet face to face, on a more appropriate scale. But I knew this woman wasn't the Planet in a human form. She was just who she was. Or used to be.

Aerith had drawn closer than she was before; it was even as if she'd taken the place of Sephiroth hovering over me, but not holding me like he was. She was kneeling there, hands on her knees, smiling down on me. It was too content for its own good, so contagious. Her arms bloomed out. I blinked confusedly at her before I knew it was a gesture for a hug. How out of place, I pondered. But like the impulsive thing my body sometimes acted, I reached out for her. I wanted a hug. I wanted to be someplace safe and she looked the next best thing.

_We're here for you._

"I'm here for you," I said.

_So rest well._

"Rest well…"

"What?" Sephiroth's voice didn't seem more than a pinprick of noise beneath the mechanical drone that grew louder and louder, until it melted all together into just what would sound like a stream.

The figure in my arms didn't appear to be Aerith by the touch; especially with her being a ghost of sorts, of whom I assumed wouldn't be easily touched. No, it wasn't her. It was Sephiroth. But through him, I sensed what could have been her, what _must _have been her, which was a strange notion. Very strange. But I didn't question it. It wasn't a questionable sort of thing, while everything else was.

"It's all right… Your second chance has come."

_That's right, your second chance has come, Sephiroth._


	20. Chapter 19: Chase: Beached

_**19: Divine Comedy Chase: Beached

* * *

**_

-----

So I lay there, hugging Sephiroth, hugging Aerith. Even knowing it was him all along, I was compelled to hang on. I didn't know what came over me. Maybe it was that woman. Maybe I was experiencing what she was experiencing, in her mind and disembodied soul. Something like compassion, maybe pity, for Sephiroth and his state of being. What did she want out of him? And me?

Her appearance here, what she was urging me to do, uprooted yet more puzzles and questions. I tired of everything becoming so vague and unknown. I just wanted to know what I needed to know and be done with everything else that didn't really concern me. A simple life. For me. It was all I wanted, all I wanted to think of.

As for Sephiroth, his bewilderment pierced and prodded me. I sensed his effort for words.

But instead, he did only what he felt he could do. He pushed me away.

"What are you doing?"

"I... I don't know. She made me do it, I think. I think it was her…" I labored for an explanation. But his briefly human eyes would only glare harder in question.

"Who is… 'she?'" he queried in a hiss.

"The woman in the pink dress."

"Woman?"

I threw my arms over my knees and drew my legs in towards my chest. It was a small source of comfort to relish, while Sephiroth sat poised in intense study of me. His hand crept like a spider back and forth next to my leg; seeing those fingers have a mind of their own was uncommon. The man didn't appear very prone to ticks. But as he'd told me, and as Aerith told me, he was undergoing a change.

Some change.

"You're forcing it on me," he snorted. "But I won't have it. I am fine the way I am. I'll never be some lowly human again…"

"Well, if you're fine the way you are, I'm fine the way _I_ am," I retorted.

The time and again battle. This time, Sephiroth didn't bother to retaliate with an acid tongue. His sharp gray eyebrows slumped down his forehead into a frown, a sleepy and agitated frown. "For a bunch of walking Lifestream, you certainly play the harebrain well. One would think you'd be aware of all the knowledge of the Planet you contain. But you're... just like a child."

"Takes one to know one, you bully," I said, sticking my tongue out at him. But that had turned out to be a mistake as he clamped it between two of his fingers rather strongly.

"To change me is to carve a mountain in half," he uttered in a firmly delicate tone. He chuckled for but a second and cut his eyes back squarely upon me. "And mountains are no easy thing to conquer."

"E, even mountains will surrender to time sooner or later," I answered from between his fingers. Sephiroth's eyes widened, and the pupils became slits once more, individual menaces set into his face.

"Ah... there's that earthly knowledge shining through. You're not as dense as you make yourself appear. But I can stand the tests of time, be sure of that. _Drana_. Watch me. And realize my potential. I won't be just a memory anymore… I'll be the world."

"Wish I could understand you more like Aerith…" I let my eyes wander on down to the floor.

"In time."

* * *

--

In time, the ship had arrived at its destination across the sea. But it was night here, too, as it had been the last time I saw the sky in Costa del Sol. I wanted to see the brightest sun ever again, beaming down on me and warming my skin. The night air and its chill had turned stale, though it never really held appeal.

But there was one thing I spied new in the air.

It was pollution.

This nasty old smell, not unlike that unmistakable, unforgettable stench at that Mako reactor, but weaker. It wasn't the smell of death and rot, but sickness, dirtiness. Similar to Midgar, but even there it was something that wasn't quite this, either.

Junon. A real, functioning city. Not a town.

It rose high up the side of a cliff on the sea's edge, making it the perfect port-city. I could tell through the darkness that almost everything had the color of bronze, somewhat rusted, somewhat polished, somewhat damaged, somewhat stony. And the hardness of concrete was present, too, under my feet. It was what a city of today would be like, almost to perfection.

This dock was, at large, lifeless and dull. Only a few boat workers slunk about, heeding us some or not at all, which was something of a relief. Sephiroth could take and handle me however he wanted and no one would lift a finger. But anyone who had previously tried was scared off, so it didn't matter in the end. He was free to do what he liked.

In his movements, I sensed my captor's familiarity with this place. It was the way he zigged and zagged and beelined his way from the dock onto the city streets with little to no hassle.

"So you've been to Junon before?" I asked as he pulled me along.

"This is where I trained to be a soldier," he answered succinctly.

"I see…"

"There it is." Our pace slowed as we reached an overpass. Beyond it, overhead, was a tall sloping building with banners draped off its side. It looked very important, and by that importance, I'd concluded that that's where Sephiroth was going to take us. As I looked up at him, his brow furrowed and his eyes became fiercely small.

"Something's not right." He yanked me hard behind him as he proceeded beneath the overpass. Men in beige, just like the ones that tried to detain Sephiroth back in Costa del Sol, suddenly passed us by and then jogged down into a corridor that veered sharply off to the right. All but one paid us no attention as they disappeared into an unseen door.

"So Shinra has been thwarted. They wouldn't have given up their throne here unless they were truly... Ah, I'd say they deserved it." Sephiroth's glare remained steadfast, though the overpass clearly blocked his view of the big building that held his interest.

"Hmm… Oh!"

I was snapped hard to my left as Sephiroth made a U-turn around me and went straight ahead to what almost looked like an ordinary metal wall. But it was split down the middle, one edge overlapping the other, meaning it opened up like a window. My captor felt cautiously at the wall, looking for something. And when his hand fell on a dully glowing square, I supposed he'd found it.

The giant unassuming doors pulled away from one end to another, revealing a giant elevator and shaft that sloped upward into dim yellowish darkness.

"Where are we going?" I asked. "To that big building? What's up there?"

"Hopefully anything I can find useful."

At the very end of the shaft, there sat another pair of gigantic doors. There was not a soul standing guard, which seemed curious and yet relieving, in that Sephiroth couldn't hurt anyone if there was no one to stand in his way. But, there were these doors. Unlike the ones that opened onto the elevator, they looked more elaborate, as if they needed permission to allow people entry. I wondered what my captor would do next, while still holding onto my wrist with his killer pincer of a grasp.

"Oh, don't think a few meager gadgets will impede my entry," he said slyly, dropping my wrist for a rarest instance since we landed here.

Sephiroth approached the doors. He raised his hands to them, though by the shadow they cast, they weren't pressed against the cold metal at all. He let them hover there, motionless. I wondered what he was doing.

"I'm looking for the core of the security system installed into these doors… Ah, there." He made his palm flat as a slate and pressed his fingertips vertically to one section of the metallic surface. His hand balled into a fist and cut right through the metal with a groan and a screech.

The doors began to rise from the floor and up into the ceiling. Sephiroth quickly drew his arm out, so he wouldn't be carried off his feet and eventually lose a limb in the process.

"There."

"Are you sure this is alright? Or safe, even?" I looked nervously about me, just waiting for something to pop out of a wall or the dim darkness behind or in front of us. "You'd think in a place like this, there'd be alarms going off…"

"I don't care either way. Now come."

This building was entirely new to me, but by the way Sephiroth moved ahead of me, he'd seemed even more familiar inside than out on the streets. So his ties to this place were true, somehow. And I didn't have to ask, I could just see. It was a most interesting sight, as always. Yet, it annoyed me to be able to see all the subtle changes in his muscular body wherever we went now, the tiniest gleam of his mind past the dark fogs between us. I would rather it had been someone else. But of course, now hadn't been the time to contemplate and complain, as always.

Amazingly enough, even with how armored everything appeared, it looked like little more than an office building on the inside. Rows and rows of desks lined this huge chamber, all affected in their own way to match the personality of those who sat at them. To my surprise, a scattered few raised their heads like birds on the alert to the cat that just crashed their coop. I gasped and shrank back.

"Well, well…"

"Hey, who are you?" called one of the desk-sitters, a young man to be exact. "You don't look authorized to be here after hours."

"You're not Shinra, are you," my captor uttered, with a dignified toss of his chin.

"No, Shinra's been toppled ages ago. We're the WRO. Now's your turn to answer."

"Oh really. Just like those dogs back in Costa del Sol? Simple filing grunts such as you shouldn't speak so casually to their superiors." I could see the lofty man's grin burn so darkly, even through the back of his head.

"Hey, who the fuck are you?" said another, this time a female and a bona fide hothead.

"Meet your maker."

"No, wait, Sephiroth!" I cried, reaching hastily for the arm he lifted in the workers' direction. I was flung to the floor, and a cold blast of air raced through the entire room. Chairs, papers, whole desks, went airborne and spiraled backwards into the nearest wall. The working stragglers were dispersed in a daze, sliding across the shiny tile floor and smacking into the wall just as well as everything else.

"You didn't have to do that!" I yelled, over the loud, angry squall that was only just beginning to die down. "They were unarmed…"

"If they're not dead, what does it matter to you? No loss of life, no complaints."

"You're still hurting people. Stop it! Argh!" Sephiroth picked me off the floor by the waist and proceeded to carry me off to another part of the darkened, but now disturbed building. I knew it was only a matter of time before more people would come, this time armed and dangerous, to be sure. "You brute…"

He said nothing, continuing onward.

Here and there, he'd appear dazed as if he were lost. I guessed that having been dead as long as he'd been, if that were true, so many things had changed in waking life that it left him grasping for straws. It was enough to leave even the strongest of some men feeling useless in a way. That was one observation of mine, however. I wasn't sure about saying the exact same for Sephiroth. He was an unusual one.

"Halt, intruder!"

"Freeze!"

A clatter of footfalls came to cease in a hallway directly off to our side. Security guards. I could barely see how many had confronted us from under my captor's arm, but I had to guess about three at the least. I only wished there were more, so that they'd have more than enough manpower to subdue Sephiroth.

Guns cocked and lights flashed over us.

Sephiroth turned to meet their flashlights, barrels and visored eyes.

"Good evening, gentlemen," he voiced, a gesture too elegant for him or the situation.

"No bullshit, you're the intruder who blasted the lobby," warned the leading guard. "Come peacefully or we'll be forced to shoot."

"Would you shoot even this pretty young creature in my arm?" He offered me up in front of them, playing me up like the meat shield I had the potential to be. I saw their rifles lower only slightly to the floor but quickly return to an unyielding gunpoint trained right at us. At Sephiroth.

"Shit, they didn't say anything about a hostage," one guard said in dismay.

"What now, chief?" asked a third.

"Tranqs."

"Roger." Guns clicked and their barrels fell pointed at us yet again.

"Run! Please don't fight, it'll only end badly for both sides," I pleaded.

"Quiet," Sephiroth murmured sweetly, squeezing an arm tightly under my chin.

"Stop it! Run, please!"

I saw a glinting sliver of light off to my left. I had only a couple guesses as to what it would be. And coming from Sephiroth's side, it decidedly wasn't good.

"Now, stop it, you bastard!" I screamed, throwing an arm in his way.

The most shocking result of my actions was the fact that an arm dropped to the floor at our feet, following the swing of his sword.

"Drana...!"

"Oh... that's different," I said, dropping on my knees.

"He's injured the hostage! Shoot!"

Noise cracked over my head, startling and causing me to fall on the limb. Green light oozed everywhere, soaking my grubby clothes and hair.

"Drana," I heard him say, anger and surprise seething out of his voice.

I felt a wetness hit me from above. I reached for the back of my head and pulled my hand back. There was a black stickiness stuck to my fingers, but in the green light all around me, I could see it was almost purple.

"Why did you do that, you fool!"

"I don't want you... to hurt, you stupid man..." It was hard grasping at words with my own arm lying in front of me in all its severed glory.

"If you just did as I say, this wouldn't have happened," he snarled, slipping to one knee beside me. My gaze revealed that he'd been wounded. He was alight with bright green light just like everything else; dark holes gawked at me from his shoulder and forearm. "You idiotic... You aren't supposed to act like this, you're not human like them. So stop it."

"Oh be quiet…"

"Zuu One, this is Stinger Three. Hostage is down, hostile subdued, but goddamn… We need more men, ASAP," the lead guard barked into his radio.

"It will not end like this," Sephiroth whispered with determination. He hoisted me into his arms, letting his sword fall to the floor. I writhed, clawing the air for my arm. But it melted into nothing but ooze.

"Stop right there! She's coming with us!" Guns cocked once more, aiming for my captor. But he only stared down at me with unfathomably flustered eyes.

Beyond the guards, I saw Aerith's glowing figure, hands behind her back, with another frowning smile on her face. Her eyes fluttered and looped up to the ceiling.

_The things you get yourselves into… But, that's what happens when you search for the hard truth. You can end up getting hurt... but don't worry, Drana. I'm sure you and Sephiroth will find it, together._

"We'll find it, together," I sighed and closed my eyes.

"Spouting nonsense helps no one…"


	21. Chapter 20: Chase: Net

_**20: Divine Comedy Chase: The Net**_

"_I laughed. It was a fun revelation. Hope I can do it again sometime." -Drana

* * *

_

_-----  
_

"I'm all tingly… Is this what having a body part chopped off feels like?"

I peered questioningly up into Sephiroth's smooth but troubled face. Crazily enough, whenever he looked that way, bothered and distraught, I pegged him as beautiful, in a sad way. Then, he'd put on a mask of menace over concern and my view would go back to seeing him as my captor, evilest in all his masculine wiles. That, in turn, was ugly to me. At least he was able to wear it with ease.

"You stupid, stupid woman," he chanted with quiet fury. "There are just some things you don't do. And get in my way is one, understand? Now I have to fix you…"

He held me dangerously close, crushing me in his embrace.

"You! Hand over the woman!" The guards kept a nervous but heavy vigil on us. More were coming. What would happen then? What would my captor do? Would he fight back, shedding blood with every stroke of his sword? What would he do? I was plagued with mixed feelings. He was, too, I felt it.

"Do you want me to fight them? To kill them?" he asked me, his face so serious it was terrifying. His eyes became too human for a moment, humanly angry and wanting to do something but waiting for my approval, of all things. My approval...

"N-no... No don't, Sephiroth. You can't hurt them…"

"I need to fix you. I can't do that if they take you away... You're mine, and it's what I must do."

"Please…" I lifted a hand to the air, to the security guards. "Let me stay with him. He needs…"

"What? You're not serious?"

"Is she serious?"

The guards were in obvious uproar at my decision, knowing he was the one that hurt me, that I would want to stay with him regardless of that. Crazy.

"It's better this way," I said with half-closed eyes, lowering my only arm down into my lap.

---

We were taken by a larger troupe of guards that had been summoned to take Sephiroth and I into custody. I overheard someone offering to contact their 'chief' and let him know of our trespassing in this building. Another considered it unimportant in light of other matters, but figured it couldn't hurt.

We were placed in a holding cell on a floor I could only assume was the basement of this place. Much of it had the look of rust and disuse, brimming with old crates, barrels, chairs and desks, among other things that occupied this space.

Sephiroth cradled me on the floor, tightly to the point of smashing my face into one of his bullet wounds. His blood was so warm and sticky against my skin, so human. A testament against his demands of being otherwise. So why would what wasn't human bleed human blood? All things bled, yes, I understood that just fine. But, nothing else bled as humans did. So full of emotion, so full of fire.

"Sephiroth," I said into his chest. "You want to fix me... but who'll fix you?"

"I need no such thing," he replied simply. Then, he reached for where my left arm once was, bathing his fingers in the green that still spilled from the gaping hole. He put his tongue to each digit, licking them meticulously. "Your life is all I need."

"Urh…"

"Hmph, you idiot," he sneered down at me. "To come under my blade like that... willingly? You must have a death wish. A death wish I can't allow you to fulfill just to save your gods-forsaken human dregs. No. Mine... mine is what you are, and I plan to keep it that way."

"... why do you think I'm yours like that? Why? Do you love me? Do you even like me? And not because I have some stupid power in me that you want all to yourself? I... I don't understand. Tell me, please..."

Sephiroth's brow furrowed as if some invisible demon suddenly decided to chisel it across his forehead. His hand came to clasp itself around my neck, his thumb creeping up the side of my chin and onto my lips, pinning them closed. I squeaked, unsure of how to respond.

"Love… I don't know the meaning of the word. I don't even want to hear it. I spare love for no one. With Mother gone, there is no one and nothing to love. I can't be harmed if there's nothing like it to be turned against me, don't you think so?"

"But you're changing," I muttered. "She said so. Sooner or later, you won't be able to hide from it anymore."

"My body aches for things, I admit... but even gods can desire the most basic of needs as they transcend species."

"Sir, I got word back from the chief," a guard stated aloud from the next room. "We hit the mother lode. Those two right there…"

"What?!"

"Sephiroth, what are you doing?" I groaned. "Don't do that again, it doesn't feel…"

"The legendary general that tried to destroy the planet?" said the guard captain, gazing warily into the barred window. He winced. "We have him detained. THE man himself. This shit is unbelievable. And… what's going on in there?"

"Sir, what should we do? She said to let her stay with him but-"

"We can't trust a sick fuck like that but we have little choice in the matter. It's her wish; let her suffer it alone..."

Was I suffering? The words of those men, and however careless they were in voicing them, caused my mind to flip over itself. Some part of me wished to scream and curse the loss of my arm, this cruel and unusual abuse, the other yielding to Sephiroth and letting him have his way. As long as he didn't hurt another person or thing.

I pondered how awkward we must have looked. Sephiroth held tight to my body like he would a broken rail, whispering to himself about foolishness and pleasure. I had succumbed. He could have what he wanted as the lesser evil. He could have me in exchange for precious lives saved.

They watched. I could sense the eyes through the bars on the cell door's small, circular window. They could see how he was with me, even in our tattered state, my tattered state.

A mess of blood, rags and glazing ooze.

"Let them look; they mean nothing, nothing at all," Sephiroth lilted into my ear.

"Lu…"

"I won't hurt you, so don't be afraid, little girl," my captor assured, while nipping at the lines of my neck jutting out as I tried to stretch from his mouth. It was to little avail, but I hadn't much of another choice. "I still want to feel you from every part of your body, inside and out. Become you. Consume you. It won't hurt…

"So many things to come, that they might even fix you in the process, making you a perfect treasure again."

The eyes shifted disgustedly, then fell to where I couldn't spy them looking at us anymore.

"Sir, are you sure we can't-"

"We can't touch them until the chief arrives. He sounded urgent about it, too."

"I feel like such a queer for watching and letting this happen…"

"It'll be over sooner or later. Grab some snacks; we're in for a long night."

--

The conviction I held being human I wanted gone now, because of moments like these that passed between him and I. Apparently, to be human was to know pains, pleasures, perversions, and sorrows that no other living creature even dared follow. And the body parts I possessed that I never really thought on as to what they were used for, I'd know now, in a way that sent chills down my spine and rakes across my skin. I never would have known that the body was so agonizing to live in until now.

But if I wasn't human, I wouldn't have been able to feel what Sephiroth did. And if I were even less of not being human… I would have just been alive. Floating and free, living the simplest way life could offer. The best way.

Like an animal. But even less.

The air.

The grass.

The sea.

I moaned, determined not to feel what Sephiroth gave and gave and gave. He wouldn't give up, he'd only do it more and more when I resisted or went limp. I was dizzy; I was thirsty, thirsty for sleep, for water, for whatever came to mind that wasn't _any of this._

Those guards still stood behind that door, letting this whole thing pass as if it were a play of off-color variety. While still struck with revulsion, their eyes were trapped on us, wrapped around us like a wreck they couldn't miss. I knew.

"The way you taste, like the Lifestream itself... Life itself.

"You feel like the Planet, all sweet and secure in these thighs.

"Tell me how I feel, when I lick you, when I'm inside of you… How does it feel…?

"I want to know."

Sephiroth would have never noticed when I burst wings and flew away. He didn't notice.

I flew away quietly, swiftly, freely. I could almost touch the sun. So bright and warm and loving like the Planet.

But then I…

I came back.

I fell back.

I came back and held him in my arm. Running away wasn't the right option. I had to stay. It was the only way to make sure my captor held true to the path of his second chance. Aerith demanded it. So I demanded it, too, even though I really didn't understand why, even if part of me didn't really want to.

"How you feel to me..." I mouthed at first. "I feel who you were... who you are now, and who you'll be."

"Tell me how I feel inside of-"

"I-I can't," I fumbled, breaking into sweat after sweat, for he still embraced me in that way, pressed between my thighs like a rock made into a human body. Rocking slow, but hard against me. "I don't know what this means, what you're doing, what is it?"

"Ha, of course you wouldn't know, you're still a child-"

"And you know any better..."

"-a hapless little child." He laughed lowly next to my ear, while letting his weight sink further into me. "The Planet should have told you more about the things your precious humans do... that even gods can do, as well."

"What is it…"

"It's… It's desire, plain and simple."

That pause. That pause seemed curious. It was as if Sephiroth had another word in mind but covered it with another. What was the word he'd first thought? But his mind clouded over it and it was lost.

I frowned at the side of his gray head, almost wanting to bore into that ear of his and dig out the things he hid. Or pry open those thin, crazed lips of his as they brushed my cheek and pull them out from there at the root of his tongue. That tongue, a bad thing it was. How did he know to use it that way? Were all humans able to do it?

"Now tell me, tell me now," he hissed from between those menacing, grinning lips and teeth. "How do I feel…"

"You feel like you need help."

--

"Cloud, we have a situation back in Junon!" Reeve exclaimed. He flipped his mobile phone closed and slipped it back into his coat pocket as though he were quickly holstering a gun.

Cloud quirked a blond eyebrow high in the other's direction. "Situation?"

"Some of our officers captured our alleged Sephiroth and his mystery woman just last night!"

"Captured?!" Tifa was all too taken aback for her own good. "No way."

"They're sending footage from the surveillance feeds around the building in due time. Soon enough we'll be sure whether or not this is THE Sephiroth we fought against."

"If it's the real Sephiroth, I doubt he would've been captured," Tifa muttered under her breath. "At least not willingly."

"That sounds off to you, too?" Cloud said. The woman nodded in return.

"This isn't the time for second guessing, guys," Reeve admonished. "In a few hours, we'll know the truth. If it's him or if it isn't."

"Either way," the blond tossed in, "we should haul tail to Junon, shouldn't we?"

Tifa sat down in one of the seats that lined the left side of the room. They were angular and sparsely cushioned so she found them uncomfortable but coped with it. She watched Cloud and Reeve toss around some more concerned thoughts at each other, while she took the time to ponder to herself.

_Could we face him again? Gods damn him. It took so much to fight him... I still feel like the whole thing took seven years off my life. Do I have it in me to fight again if I need to? I hope it's not Sephiroth, I hope it's not..._ She sighed inaudibly, running her gloved palm over the fore and top of her head. She looked back up at the two men as they talked, Cloud occasionally shooting a glance to Tifa as if sensing what she felt.

It was that they both knew what his return would likely entail. More death, more destruction, more loss. It was enough that they had lost their families, Aerith, and so many other people due to Sephiroth's conception, achievement, his purging. But like everyone else who survived Meteorfall, they had to be strong enough to pull through, or be crushed in the gravity of the aftermath. And Cloud and Tifa knew they had no choice but to be shining models for the rest. Even when they were still hurting inside.

"Let's take a break, Reeve," Cloud said to the older man suddenly.

Reeve shuttled a blank glance between him and Tifa across the room, then lightly stroked his goatee.

"I'll go look in on Vincent. See you in a few." He waved a large but gentle hand as he jogged out of their company.

Cloud took a seat next to Tifa, sitting fully against the back of the seat, arms crossed low over his chest.

"You think it'd really be like before?" he asked.

"I dunno... I really don't. I'm hoping not. Could we... could we really handle it all again? With all these new people depending on us, I'm kind of scared to fail."

"We are sort of like guardians of a new generation, aren't we? It's almost too big to think about."

"Scary."

* * *

--

_From Sixth: I got rid of so much... Stealth editing old crap for the win~_


	22. Chapter 21: Chase: Starcrossed

_**21: Divine Comedy Chase: The Star-crossed

* * *

**_

-----

Shera made her landing upon a launchpad situated at the very top of Junon, the perfect pedestal for a crowning achievement of Ancient and modern technology combined. She came silent in the early hours of the morning, with the sun just barely rising over the waters' western horizon and the colossal moon setting behind it.

Cloud and company had been so eager to set their feet on solid ground again, that nearly all of them had piled into the cargo hold, waiting for the bay doors to open. Vincent, still comatose, was neatly secured to his gurney held between Reeve and the lady medical officer.

WRO troops waited to greet them under the torrents of air blowing from the dual engines of the airship. They stood at the platform's very edge, some armed and unarmed, helmeted and not. One fervidly waved their arm to the airship, another, their gun.

"Ah, gotta love the fans," Cid guffawed as he watched them from the bridge.

Reeve's mobile began to ring in his coat pocket, to which he answered without delay.

"Yes?"

The urgent voice on the other end of the line caused his face to grow dark. He nodded, eyes shifting , until finally he said, "For now, keep a close surveillance, and if there's cause for more alarm, quarantine the area and post troops around all perimeters. Right. Right, we'll look into the matter as soon as we've landed. Half an hour at best. Yes. Commander out."

"What was that?" Tifa asked over her shoulder.

"Monsters have been spotted lurking the lower levels of town," he sighed. "There have been no attacks as of yet, but people are on edge. They don't look native."

"They don't look native?" the medical officer echoed. Her superior nodded and tossed his head to the right, making a lock of hair fly from its perch on his cheek.

"I've got troops on the lookout. But first, I think we should attend our other situation first and foremost." Reeve sent a hard glance in Cloud's direction. He exhaled soundly and nodded.

And the bay doors opened.

--

WRO headquarters loomed overhead in the center of Junon, as if a huge bronze sentinel that watched over city and sea. The group made their way up the streets in a transport truck that awaited them outside the great elevator and old Shinra barracks turned WRO's. Morning life was calm but hustling along, despite the threat of monsters both human and nonhuman that occupied its same space.

The air was tense as the truck approached the building.

What would happen then once everyone saw whether or not the true Sephiroth was held within? Would all hell have to break loose, as it did over two years ago? Would another battle to end all battles need arise one more time to finally put the man to rest?

Tifa coughed and lent her eyes to the gurney placed at the very back of the truck. Vincent was still as ever, like what lay there wasn't him at all, but a shell. But she knew; something still clung to that body. Whether it was her friend or not, only time would tell. And she hoped it'd tell them soon.

"Here we are, sir," the driver said, half slamming on the brakes at the lit underpass, where the lift stood to the interior of HQ.

"Thank you," Reeve smiled, and then twisted his head back towards the truck's rear. "Alright, everyone move out."

"Cloud, Tifa, stop being such goddamn slow asses!" Cid barked as the first one to hop out. "I want to see what these mugs done caught that they're so sure is Sephiroth. If it is, I reckon it's time for another ass kicking, am I right?!"

"It's too early to get cocky, Cid," Cloud muttered in very slight annoyance. Tifa made an amused sound of agreement as she slipped past him.

"Shit, too early to get cocky, nothin'!" Barret said. "We beat him before; we sure as hell can do it again. Don't listen to his spiky ass. Man, Cloud, you need a more pos-suh-muh-tive outlook."

"Barret…"

"Now, guys," Reeve interjected, "idle banter comes later. Pick up the pace."

The main lobby looked as though a giant fan had ripped the place apart. The reflective tile floor had streaks of damage training all the way to the opposite end of the room, something that would be impossible for a fan to do, unless it blew more than just air. Each of the group also came to notice all the toppled and broken desks, chairs, and lamps, some amazingly staked in the floor and up to the wall itself.

Blood painted patches on the tiles, but no bodies. Most of it formed a neat trail up and down one particular hall, finally leading down to the lower floors where that supposed Sephiroth was more than likely held.

The group, although Vincent's body was carted off elsewhere, followed the trail of blood down. Tifa flinched invisibly at each corner, hall and stairway. The memories here pinched at her. Oh those days during Meteorfall were the most trying of her life, rivaling even those when her parents had died and Nibelheim burned to the ground in her younger years. Here, in this building, she faced death as closely as each and every battle she fought with a monster, if not more, and only very narrowly escaped with her life. She hated to remember, but being in this building forced it upon her.

"You have butterflies in your stomach, too?" Cloud whispered suddenly.

Tifa jumped at his voice brushing her ear, then composed herself and nodded. "I mean, all this time, we've only been running on what Vincent said and that message Yuffie left and… To see if it's him or not, at last. It almost feels like waiting for a doctor to tell me if I'm going to die tomorrow or just keep on going. You know?"

"Nice analogy," the blond chuckled, tugging at his harness. "Yeah. I just don't know what to be prepared for... other than fighting."

"Well, fighting is what we do best," the brunette replied in a cheerfully sad tone. It was true; fighting was almost all they knew how to do. They were still learning just to know how to live again.

Guards maintained positions outside the double doors that led into the basement room of HQ. Their eyes acknowledged Reeve first, then his companions; quickly they stood aside to allow them entrance with a few affirmative grunts. Even more WRO troops paced the large, moldy old room inside, rifles shouldered and at the ready.

"It's the chief!" someone called.

All soldiers stood at attention. Reeve chuckled and glanced back at his cohorts with a hint of embarrassment on his face. "At ease, men. There's no need for that here."

"Sir, the captured are right this way."

The group was led straightaway to a door beneath a large, dilapidated flatscreen television, heavily guarded by particularly nervous looking men. They stood off to each side of the door, allowing for a view into the holding cell beyond.

"It can't be," Tifa exclaimed.

"I'll be a fuckin' Shinra catheter," Cid exhaled.

-

I was sitting facing the wall when more came to be our spectators. Some of the voices I heard were startlingly familiar, despite not having known when I heard them last, nor the names of whom they belonged to. I looked over my shoulder to the cell door window. A pair of big blue eyes, flanked by a pair of big brown eyes, peered down at me on the floor. They were so full of surprise, like children's.

"D-did you come to get me out of here?" I asked the eyes.

They went even wider.

"I remember you," said a male voice. "You're... Drana? So, you're the-"

"Cloud."

"Huh?"

"Long time no see, Cloud," Sephiroth said. He stood clear of the eyes' line of sight, just to the left of the door. His voice was mocking, but his face was not. It was cold and stern as he stared straight down at me, his own eyes flickering between being human and fiercely feral.

"Sephiroth… I didn't think I'd ever hear you again."

"Thank this sweet angel of mine for bringing me back. Don't be shy now."

"I didn't," I cried. "Stop saying that!"

"But isn't it the truth?" he said to me.

"I still don't know… I don't know the truth. Neither do you!"

"Drana…?" a woman's voice suddenly flooded in through the window. "What's going on here?"

"I…" I frowned.

Sephiroth drifted from his place next to the door. He stood before me, lifting me up by my stump of an arm. It only tingled when it was touched and dully flushed green when especial pressure was applied.

He placed me in front of him, clad only in his dusky tank top. I felt like a display in some tour of the strange. And why wouldn't I have looked strange, with half an arm, neck and chest covered in dried blood, and wearing nothing but an also bloodied tank top? Strange enough, I'd have imagined.

The blue eyes shifted sadly over me, lingering upon my injury. "... Are you okay?"

"I-"

"That's enough talking from you," Sephiroth uttered, slipping a hand over my mouth. "So… Cloud. What brings you here? If it's me, then... I'm flattered you can't bear to stay away. But I doubt you'll be able to spill my blood again."

"Don't flatter yourself," Cloud growled through the window. "Neither you nor Jenova can affect me anymore… I'm my own person and if you think you can go against that, you got another thing coming to you. Don't think I'll let you try to destroy or conquer the Planet again either, not after what we went through to get rid of you the first time."

"Seph…" My captor's less than grimy hand pressed more firmly over my lips to keep the words from escaping. The way the two men spoke to each other intrigued me. I was compelled to question them.

"Oh, now don't _you_ flatter yourself, boy," Sephiroth hissed in return. "Drana, my dear Drana, is my new foothold into something grand, perhaps grander than even previous goals."

"Aerith wouldn't approve of this," I grunted into his palm. "You can't ruin your chance. Take a different... path…"

"As if your ghosts can tell me what to do," he muttered into the pate of my head. The words caught on a tangle but didn't remain there to deter me, sliding down and out; so he continued, "Whatever my chance is, I'll do what I like with it."

"Wait," Cloud said. "Did you say... did you say Aerith? You knew her?"

I managed to wrench Sephiroth's hand away and fall to my knees and elbow on the floor. I clawed my way up the cell door and gazed into those bright, yet sad blue eyes on the other side.

"You know Aerith?" I asked. "You must all be her friends. I see now."

"She was important to me... to all of us."

"Drana…"

I ignored the warning voice as it urged me to stop communicating with those I guessed he considered rivals or enemies. I couldn't stop and didn't want to, either. The Aerith in me was reaching out; she wanted to physically reconnect with these friends of hers in life.

I lifted my hand to the bars on the window.

"I'm sure you're important to Aerith, too... VERY important. But…" I hesitated to say anymore, but bit back that hesitation and went on. "I think she sees something important in Sephiroth, too…"

"No. No, you can't be serious." Cloud shook his head adamantly. "Because Sephiroth nearly…"

"Drana, that's _enough _talking." Sephiroth deftly wrapped me in his arms and slung me away from the door, to the far end of the cell. He tucked my head so far under his sharp chin, I thought he'd crush it in half if he decided to bear down. Instead, he spun me around behind him and slapped me flat against the rough, rusty surface of the wall, then backed his body up to pin me in place.

"Reeve, open the door," Cloud said.

"R, really? But-"

"Drana is mine and I plan to keep it that way." What heart he had in his chest I could feel pulsating out of his back. Soon it started to calm. The rumble of his voice through his body was less intimidating, but still jarring all the same. Because of the conviction. Almost utterly unshakable. "One way or another, my ambitions will come to completion. Just wait and see."

"Reeve!"

"Alright!"

Sephiroth tossed me over his shoulder like a sack and twisted towards the wall. He lifted an arm high above his head. As if on cue, the wall began to bubble outward and boil a white, hot red. I strained to push away from Sephiroth and what he was doing, but only having one complete arm gave me little leverage. The heat was unbearable, so much so that the wall popped in a blaze and gush of burning air. "Farewell."

In mere seconds, we were sailing down the bronze slope of the building. The stench of molten, grimy metal still stuck to my nose, quickly swept away by the brash and powerful sea air blowing past us.

"Sephiroth!"

Far above us, I saw the blond man falling, too. Though his face looked so small at his distance, his expression was still too intense not to be seen.

"Sephiroth," I cried.

"It's unavoidable," Sephiroth replied. There was a clear snicker cloaked within what he spoke beneath the wind. He knew. "Can't you see? We must have been destined for rivalry!"


	23. Chapter 22: Golden Confrontation

_**22: Golden Confrontation

* * *

**_

-----

The ocean air was refreshing even as we fell at our height, our speed, maybe even our doom. I doubted Sephiroth would ever allow this to be the end of him. As a matter of fact, by what I felt radiate from him, he seemed to be enjoying this more than I ever could. Flying freely perhaps without a care, without the threat of death as earth sped up to greet us.

I spied a glimmer from on high: the blond man descending along with us. It was a great spark of energy, not unlike that within Sephiroth. They were so alike; I almost couldn't tell whose was whose. Regardless the outcome of this encounter, they were definitely going to have fun in the process. It was too easy to see.

"Oh yes, Drana," Sephiroth laughed aloud. "Fun will be had; the fun I never had in life!"

There was a sudden rush of friction beneath me, in Sephiroth's body. I looked down his long, buckled legs to see his feet surfing atop the surface of the metal building. I couldn't tell whether it was dust, dirt or smoke rising in the wake from the rubber soles of his boots. But what I found more mind boggling than that was the fact that we were slowing down.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud called.

I looked up past the curtain of my whipping hair.

The blond had done pretty much the same, except he was dashing down the slope, swords drawn from the harness I'd seen him wearing when I first met him.

"This is crazy," I shrieked as we began to spin around. The world reeled and zipped side to side, with a splinter of bright silvery light slicing into my view every now and again.

Cloud was closing in with less than a few yards between us. I saw his legs buckle purposely, causing him to come to an almost instant stop then catapult into the air overhead. In the glint of the morning sun, it looked as if a blinding cross was falling towards us.

Sephiroth's sword swooped up to meet it head on. How he managed to pull that thing out of nowhere was beyond me. But between the dim spray of sparks over our heads, I saw Cloud's conflict of a young, fair face. He held himself in a handstand on the curve of my captor's sword using his own two blades. Either the blond had amazing control over his body or time had bewilderingly slowed to a crawl in that single moment.

"Sharp as ever, grunt, but still less of a match for me," Sephiroth sneered.

Cloud's brow furrowed crossly as his legs started to lean forward.

And then he was gone.

Surprise.

A giant blue shadow soared in the low, sparse haze. Cloud hung from its claws, obviously as stunned as we were and even more obviously vying to get free.

"What was that?" I asked. Sephiroth had turned from the side of the building, upon whose narrow ledge we perched, where I couldn't see a thing except for bronze metal.

"Just a bird," he answered. "Impeccable timing."

A horrible screech filled the sky over Junon and I could feel the air on my backside roar.

"Wait, what's going on?" I pushed my toes into his thigh and tried to drag myself off his shoulder. "Put me down so I can see."

"… damn it."

The screeching was getting closer, preceding a roaring, rumbling swoosh. Sephiroth turned quick on his heels and bounded off the ledge to a roof of one of the building's lower wings. Up high, I saw the big blue shadow rocket by, followed by a spray of blood. I was glad to have turned down my face so that only my back was spattered by it.

"Sephiroth," Cloud called out of nowhere. "No running away!"

My captor twisted again on his heels. Out of what I hoped was the faint mercy in his heart, he dropped me on my knees and ran towards the rounded edge of the roof. The blue shadow appeared glad to meet at that very same spot, with Cloud dangling from its talons.

The thing screeched again, a long neck craning up then down as it clumsily collapsed and scrabbled at the roof's edge. Cloud crouched at the shadow's feet, one sword still in hand, though streaked in blood. I inched back on my hand and knees when I'd seen the little less than violent intent in the other's form from afar. I reached up to stop Sephiroth from doing anything rash, but I already knew he would've been gone before I even tried.

"Hand her over," the blond demanded in that strangely soft voice of his.

"Didn't I tell you? She's mine, mine alone."

Cloud jumped to his feet, charging sword first. Sephiroth's blade fell like a sharp, narrow barrier to stop him more than just a few feet from where he stood. "Whatever she means to you is wrong."

"Begging to differ."

"I forgot you were just another Shinra monster!" The bloody sword swung upwards to knock the other out of the way, clearing a path for another much leaner blade to pierce Sephiroth's block, yet parried nonetheless. His wrist then twisted to deflect the smaller, shorter blades with the ease he so boasted learning as a soldier.

Swords clanked and clashed without fail. I shook my head in dismay. Why did they have to fight? It felt rather pointless, least of all in my eyes. Though I knew Sephiroth wasn't exactly the epitome humanity had to offer. I wished I'd known what happened over two years earlier, what they all experienced and endured.

"Oh…" I'd soon realized the big blue shadow was a bird. Of course, it was a bird, and a rather angry one at that. Like some birds did, it hopped towards the warring men, flapping up intense squalls with its giant, ragged wings. With them preoccupied like this, now was a good chance for me to get away from here, from them and their fighting. I felt a bit guilty to abandon Sephiroth and making sure he didn't botch his second chance in the living world, but I wanted more to get away from everything and recuperate in solitude.

But I was on top of a building, and getting down blatantly looked to be no easy task.

"Drana, I don't want to have to hunt you down," my captor shouted, suddenly appearing in front of me, his blade just centimeters away from cutting into my shoulder. He took two big steps back, when a shadow started to loom across his pale face.

Cloud, too, had instantly blinked into view, warding Sephiroth off and knocking me down in the process.

"Hey!" I cried.

"Sorry, but stay back," he said in a hurried exhale and charged into battle again.

I scrambled to my feet once more and started for the side of the roof that dipped towards to the south, where I'd noticed rails that seemed out of place. I felt as if home free, rushing for it excitedly.

The giant bird crumpled over and in front of me, knocking me head over heels.

Random images and words flashed across my mind while I was airborne. None of it had anything to do with my life to date. It was merely a thought on how it would feel to smack into the concrete far below. Would it hurt? Would it only sting? Would it feel good? Would I feel anything at all?

Would I save myself? I pondered. Would Sephiroth save me? Or Cloud? No, they wouldn't have saved me because they were too busy fighting. They'd never notice until it was too late, like now, as I fell. And this state of falling I was in felt so much different than falling with Sephiroth. It had that air of isolation like I was missing some important thing; a bird missing one wing or both, and the world was passing me by, not caring to lend a hand to its child. I was... forsaken.

"Planet-"

Thud.


	24. Chapter 23: Ultimate Redux

_**23: The Ultimate Redux**_

_Hehe... did you know the Planet takes you too seriously?

* * *

_

----

Some places of the Planet I found to be physically unkind on the human body, though I knew it didn't exactly mean for it to be that way. When its children took part of its body and changed its makeup into something else, these sorts of things were bound to happen; people were going to get hurt.

I experienced this firsthand. My entire body was numb; I couldn't feel a thing. The sky looked down at me with indifference, having seen this happen a million times and grown insensitive to this usually gruesome sight.

Something nipped and picked at my last good arm, but I couldn't see it, I couldn't turn my head or my eyes. Then I felt a great pressure on my stomach. It became heavier and heavier until it felt like there was no more of my stomach to crush.

It was a monster, clicking like a clock, in an attempt to tear my arm away.

I laughed on the inside, because I certainly wasn't expecting this.

_So... I wonder if I'll die, _I thought. _Maybe I'll finally see what the fuss is about, and why so many people hate it or crave it. Or maybe, I'll…_

I heard my name echo on the air. Faint yet clear, like a crystal way at the bottom of a lake. But it was up high. Sharp, upset, a little wanting.

Sephiroth. By now, I recognized his voice like it was just another part of whatever my life was. By now, it was just as routine an un-thought of thing as breathing. Though I lost track of the time I spent being held captive by him… I couldn't explain it. I supposed it was the spiritual bond that inexplicably linked us together. I still resented it in some small manner, but at the same time, it felt welcome, unusually so.

_He sounds worried, _I voiced in my head, because my lips refused the action. _This should teach him a lesson. Sometimes fighting isn't always going to protect a person. Maybe now he'll think twice…_

The world around me started to smear together, as if it were beginning to pass me by. Everything seemed to move by so fast, and I, so slow; however, the monster still picked at my body in super locomotion. It, in itself, was a big red blur, as long as three people from head to toe, tall as two. When it finally vanished, a new blur took up its stead, smaller and both red and black. Tiny whispers that made no real sound tried to break the barrier of the fleeting world into mine. I noticed a touch of familiarity, but as it was just a blur, I couldn't figure it out and lost it to other, more preoccupying thoughts.

It left after a while, probably dispirited that I couldn't identify who or what it was, and I was alone again, despite having other things linger by me, run over me, pass through me.

"Drana, get up, it's coming," said a voice.

I sensed a phantom limb reaching up and out. The one I'd lost. It sensed who was calling to me now when I, myself didn't. The suspense killed me, for the voice, while pretty, held neither male or female tones in my world. It was just there, calm and melodic, a bit concerned.

"A blast from the past... It destroyed to protect. They fought for the Planet, mindless though they were past that sole objective of theirs. The intentions are good, but the methods are... extreme.

"Pull yourself together. I know it'll be hard, but now's the time to embrace your true nature. You're something greater... something that humankind itself could someday if they only strove to be just like you. Like the Ancients. Don't see this as being the end of your life, but the beginning of how it was meant to be, a new one. It might be lonely, but guess who came to be by your side and help you through this. I'll admit the personality leaves something to be desired. That's just what happens when you don't abide by the rules you were given. But new rules offer new possibilities, right? C'mon!"

I considered that random little speech to be a wild figment of my imagination, because eventually it became in my own voice, or something like it. It somehow managed to dismember itself from my body, warped by time and space of this slow moving world, and change into what was, but not quite, my voice. But I was just letting my imagination run rampant, which I hadn't done so in a while.

"You... can't be me," I exhaled in one breath, although the words were little more than just a long unbroken string of letters. How they still sounded like what I meant them to be was beyond me, but my ears were nevertheless happy to hear my voice flow from my own lips, my own body, instead of the realm of blurs.

A soft, pale white hand came to rest over my eyes. It was too warm for comfort, but felt nurturing and protective just like a mother's hand. I wondered if I had a mother now, because I'd never thought of it before. The thought of family. And then that feeling of loneliness washed over me again. I guessed, at last, that I wasn't human. I didn't have a mother, or a father. Or anything. I was just in this place, just…

"Planet…"

* * *

--

The earth began to shake, and the wind to wail. At first, anyone would have deemed it just an earthquake. But this region of the eastern continent wasn't known for such phenomenon.

The crater lake from a time young and unforgettable started to spike and wave like curtains being ripped apart by angry winds. The waters threatened to climb the smooth, scarred black walls and spill out onto the green flatlands, and finally, to the sea. But just as suddenly as the tumult had risen from unknown depths, the blue waters instantly began to spiral downwards into the lake bed's bottom, until a black star was forced out into the sky.

Only, it wasn't a star.

Various things unfurled from the black sphere, becoming something that looked truly from another world.

-

"Drana, gods damn you!" Sephiroth cursed over the upper level of the city. He quaked furiously in the morning breeze. Cloud stood by, swords still raised, but struck with curious alarm towards the other's behavior. The gray-haired man almost completely disregarded the blond once he realized something had gone awry. He raced towards the humongous grounded bird, severing head from body in a final slash. The great serrated beak, with its vivid blue marks, snapped at air and let loose a last anguished cry before it was punted into the streets below.

Sephiroth prepared to jump, wrought with determination.

"Sephiroth, wait!" Cloud called out.

The tall man scoffed and slipped off the edge.

"So many hells to pay for your insolence," he breathed through the ripping air, flinging his sword down towards the ground like a boomerang.

Before he reached the street, a figure vanished off into nowhere, leaving the great lumbering body of a red beast fallen over a pool of what could be nothing else but Lifestream. In a city like Junon, the lands directly on which it sat had been nearly sucked dry save for the deepest reservoirs that nobody could touch. No, it had to be…

"Drana!"

-

The impending dark sphere crept over the flatlands, surrounded by a void bereft of sound, hardly as disturbing as a midday wind. But still, each blade of grass its shadow crawled upon bent and stood at attention to its gravitational pull, shivering under its quiet roar. Whatever it really was, its sheer presence was something powerful, speaking volumes of its strength alone.

It advanced Junon, possessing very little in the way of urgency.

-

"Drana!" Sephiroth roared. By the time he'd reached the ground, hardly suffering any loss of breath, he broke into a dash as soon as his heels hit the pavement.

Approaching the pool of Lifestream in the street, his body bent forward, arms thrust out in front of him to move the giant red body of a decapitated beast in a single shove. The carcass instantly gave way, rolling and flopping to one side like an old rug.

It was here that I saw a new blur form out of nothing, gray headed and seething with a dim red light. There was no other I knew that had an aura like that. Even in this slow moving world, I knew Sephiroth in a heartbeat. But his aura made guilt surge through me, because I'd gotten 'hurt' in his care, and beneath the anger he shot down at me, I saw the grief that struck him. Yet, why should I have felt guilty for his carelessness with me?

"Shut up," he snapped. "You know that you'll pay for this? Pay for what you've done? No one leaves me and gets away with it. When this is over…"

"Guh," I croaked up at him.

"Don't you women ever listen? Shut up and conserve your energy." Sephiroth had pressed a hand to my chest, more gently than he himself acted, and I could feel my very body ooze under the slight weight he applied. I groaned, even knowing no real pain passed through me, only numbness.

"Ah…"

"Let the Planet-"

He was torn to his feet. As he melded with my world, I could see his crystal clear figure stand rigid, his sharp chin and nose pointed to the blue and gold sky.

He felt its pull.

He knew it was coming, just like I did.

"What is it?" I heard him say breathlessly. "What is it that's coming?"

"Nnn... mmm..." My tongue flopped against the roof of my mouth, despite my second efforts at trying to speak. But I kept trying. I wanted so badly to be able to talk normally again, to warn this city that something was on its way, at the Planet's fevered behest. Something big.

I urged Sephiroth back to me by what I hoped was sheer will. Eventually, the man broke from his stern watchdog stance to kneel down at my side, his eyes ferocious as ever, but invisibly yielding to some humanity within.

"What is it? It's something coming for you, isn't it?" He tried to fume but I willed him to calm himself. "I'm not letting it have you, even if you wanted to go."

"… it's here," I breathed.

"It's coming," said a smiling voice.

Sephiroth froze into a state of surprise while on his hands and knees. Some presence far beyond my line of sight beckoned him, fixing him into place like nothing else I've seen was capable.

"You, who are you?" he demanded.

"That's not important. What's important is you have to get ready to fight. It's coming and nothing will stand in its way, unless you all do something. I'm sure Drana'll do what she can, too. She's stronger than she looks, even though right now she can't even move. But give her time, and she'll learn she can fight. That she just doesn't have to grin and bear it. Right, Drana?"

I fell silent.

"She knows. Give her time. Stall that thing until she's ready and you two can do it together. Or you can all do it together."

"Who…"

Beads of cool green light sprinkled my cheeks, soothing as the comforts of sleep. But now wasn't the time to sleep. Now was the time for me to get up, to rise from this brokenness and defend this city from something I knew I'd inadvertently called.

Truths beckoned me now more than ever.

"Sephiroth," I inhaled, mustering all my might to lift my ragged arm to his. His fingertips intimately touched my palm, belying the mask of rage still plastered to his face. He wanted nothing more right now than to see me again in my former glory as his so-called treasure. Perhaps, from this I'd be able to draw strength in making my body work once more. It wasn't such a radical notion. I was sure people had done this before when there was nothing else in which they could find support.

A single touch.

"Aerith…"

The ground began shook softly, too softly to make any danger of it, as if trucks just drove by or people tramped about their daily business. But as Sephiroth saw it, and I saw through him, most business had ceased and people had been driven into hiding. Because, aside from the great thing coming to Junon, there were still others prowling about in the back alleys of the city. Other things that came about, no doubt, because of me.

Sephiroth was already fully upon his feet, sword in hand and hair billowing like the fanciest cape.

"I will be back for you," he said in passing, "so be ready."

He was gone.

My arm fell in a sickly plop back on the pavement. I had to pull myself together. I wasn't dead nor was I on the brink of death. I had to realize that. I had to realize that I wasn't just a human anymore. I was something more, something that couldn't die or be injured as easily as a human could, because of how the Planet made me. Although, I still had to wonder why it made me the way it did.

A puff of wind splashed beside me, and with it came another presence.

"... Can you move?"

"You," I exhaled. "Cloud…"

He knelt down next to me, an inquiring hand reaching down but twitching away as if touching me meant defiling himself. As though I were dead and disease-ridden already. But I wasn't and I demonstrated that by raising my ragged arm to the youthful man, slapping my palm against his heart.

"Get… ready, for battle… Help Sephiroth." Flecks of luminous green floated off my fingers into Cloud's face. He'd looked so stunned, like he saw a ghost rise out of me.

His heart lifted to the very fabric of the vest he wore, thumping dangerously hard, almost threatening to burst through. That was when he pushed my hand away and laid it down on my own chest.

"Help Sephiroth? But he-"

"No time for... for petty squabbles… City needs… help." I strained for more strength, trying so hard that I'd unconsciously turned myself over on my side from Cloud. I soon found myself on my face, Lifestream bubbling steadily up into my eyes and mouth, tempting me with the cool sleepiness of its energy.

"I… Where is it?" he queried. "Where's Sephiroth?"

"Coming…"

Cloud's mobile beeped suddenly, to which he answered its call. "Reeve?"

"Surveillance has picked up a large life form on its radar, approaching from the southeast, about ten miles from city limits. It's moving slow but steady. The others and I are already back on the Shera and are planning to intercept the target."

"On my way," he said and snapped the phone shut. "Hey... Let me help you. I-"

"No time," I gasped. "Can... help myself. Go…"

"But-"

"Go!" I yelped.

And he was off.

"Aerith... what can I do?" I muttered into the ground, in the Lifestream that spilled from my body. "Planet... how can I stop it? Wait, I'll show you…"

--

Sephiroth had finally made it to his destination, just miles outside of Junon, in the flatlands. The soft rumble and roar in the distance sang to his ears, while the faintest mechanical hum played at the back of his head from a completely different direction. He'd turned his head.

An airship gained on his location, probably men deployed to seek out the monster that was coming.

Sephiroth faced back in his original direction, spying the black shape that inched ever so slowly his way. He'd seen now that it wasn't a simple free-floating mass, not with the wings it had, or the arms and legs it sported, or the tail that dragged just shy of the earth, or the powerful magnetism it radiated across the land.

This was something Sephiroth had only seen in private reports and in the latter half of his death.

This was a Weapon.

Born straight from the Planet's womb, odd biomechanical things programmed with few, specific purposes. One was to ward off and eliminate any harm that came to menace the Planet, another to reduce everything to nothingness should harm attempt to persist regardless of being defeated, thus giving the Planet time to mend wounds and start everything anew in peace.

"Can you see it now, Drana?" Sephiroth uttered lowly. "This is one of your kin, but unlike you, they don't know any better from absolute destruction. Shall I send it back to the Lifestream for you?"

He nodded, though slightly disheartened.

"Oh I suppose… So, risen from the dead? Just like someone else I know…" He snickered to himself.

A third noise commanded his attention yet again. The subtle howl of an engine from afar, of one that was drastically smaller in comparison to those of the oncoming airship.

A motorcycle.

"Cloud," Sephiroth said in finality. He sucked air between closed teeth, letting his head roll just a bit from side to side. "So, you told him to help? Well, I guess that's fine, so long as he stays out of my way…"

He staked his sword in the soft soil and ground his feet firmly into the grass. He drew a big breath into his taut chest, raised his arms and clenched his fists to the sky. He'd known the knowledge of the Ancients very well in life and death. However, his couple of years in forced idleness left him feeling a bit rusty, though he'd managed to hide it well. Knowledge from the past did not change; it was simply added to, albeit sometimes replaced, and for that he was relieved. Before time had a final, and successful, chance to drag that wisdom into eternal obscurity, he would use it here and now the best he could.

"Time can never hope to defeat the shadows of solitude… as it flares up from the abyss of the unknown."

His lips curled into a snarling grin, bearing his pearly white teeth up at the colossal floating Weapon. He might have been one man against it, but he was sure of the power that backed him and his daring to face it down. Too sure.


	25. Chapter 24: Ultimate Show

_**24: The Ultimate Show

* * *

**_

-----

"Dammit, I never thought I'd have to fight that thing again…"

Cloud punched the brakes a mile or so behind Sephiroth as he stood there, arms to the skies where the Weapon hung silently in place. He wondered what his adversary was up to. His stillness was unnerving and the incoherent muttering he'd heard failed to assuage his uneasiness.

Sharp black clouds started to gather between man and beast. But they were more than just clouds. Bubbles, holes, even the darkest electricity. Heat and fire.

Cloud had seen exactly how this played out, this energy; this wild yet contained display of darkness against darkness. Once before. Twice before. When one fought monsters as much as he had, one gained a vast knowledge of the enemies' repertoire of skills, good or bad, magic or physical.

And he knew the repercussions of using such skills.

Destruction, of course.

Not just of the enemy, but the land, too.

If Sephiroth still knew as much of what he did from his days just before Meteorfall's end, this side of the Planet would be in for a rocky ride.

"Gods…" Cloud leapt off his bike, adjusted his sword harness and raced towards his adversary.

Winds bellowed as the Weapon lifted a massive arm and fist down quick at the minor thing before it, beginning a spell not unlike that of Sephiroth's.

The darkness crackled.

Humongous spheres of black flew out in every direction, and where they touched on earth, the grass and soil turned pitch. Charred to dust. Scattered to the winds.

Sephiroth was unfazed. The flare had been a ploy, through which he launched himself straight for the monster's mammoth neck.

His blade met the Weapon's wall of a fist with an unsettling, resounding clang, as if the whole thing were hollow. And the man went falling.

But no more once his hand caught the rim of one of the beast's armored plates along its chest.

He huffed.

He snickered.

There was no dropping out of the game so easily. Never so easily.

"Sephiroth!" Cloud called from miles below him and the floating Weapon.

"Hmm?" He looked down, smirking instantly. "You're late, grunt."

The blond pulled two swords from his harness. There'd be no magic casting from him. He'd had most if not all he needed in his swords. Hoisted above his head, he shouted past them, "Do we have a truce?"

"Now and only now!" The reply was sharp, but compliant.

There was a sudden dip in the Weapon's gravity. Its forefeet began to plummet to earth, eventually followed by its hind feet, both set apart by two quakes, knocking even Cloud to his knees and sending blocks of soil and grass into the air. A third quake, only half as strong as the others, threw Cloud back upright. Fighting this thing was tougher than it had been fighting it while airborne. All the tremors and all the upturning of earth were annoying, albeit healthy obstacles to contend with. Raw, good old-fashioned exercise, exercise the young man missed from his long ago days in saving the world.

Sephiroth cackled at Cloud's shaky challenge, swinging his sword up into the space between the Weapon's wired flesh and armored plate. The perfect levee to launch him back up to the monster's neck.

The Weapon's crowned, birdlike head bowed, neck plates moaning and popping against each other. Sephiroth nimbly scoured up when and where he could while the beast tried and tried again to shrug him off. Between its neck and shoulder, he'd shoved a pair of javelins of ice to use as stepping stones onto the back.

Cloud sped toward the Weapon's leg, stopping then just a few feet short to propel himself as high he could, swords pointed up and ahead. As he planned, they penetrated the foreleg's shell.

Gravity shifted yet again, the blond's body yanked painfully down, but never shaking off his grip.

Shera landed at last. She was berthed at a safe distance, too safe in fact, for it'd take some time for the crew to reach the monster and assist. Despite that fact, Tifa was already racing from the ship across the plain. The sheer recognition of the Weapon caused her trek to falter just slightly, but she continued on. She was going to fight.

As she pumped her legs, the burn of overexertion too little to slow her down, Tifa was fast upon the thing. Her eyes spied a tiny Cloud hiking up the monster's haunch, and a limber Sephiroth practically skating along the upper back. It'd turned a subtle eighty degrees to the right, in her and the airship's direction.

It roared. Earsplitting, a high-pitched squeal.

It was too birdlike for its own good, in spite of the dragon-shaped body.

The folded wings, though not so much wings as bulky flaps, unlocked. They flew upright, revealing organic tubes like the exhaust pipes of a truck. A great suction of air, coupled with the Weapon's natural gases, caused it to rise higher and higher into the air.

"Shit!" Cloud cursed.

_If it took off now…_

Tifa had just barely managed to grab hold of one of the monster's claws, struggling to pull herself up. The distance between them and the ground was increasing. So even the smallest mishap was unacceptable; any one of them would have an impossible time getting back to where they'd gotten.

"Cloud!" she screamed.

By chance of fate, he heard.

"Huh?" He looked down, spying a slender form dangling somewhere below. "Tifa?"

"Time to clip a wing or two…" Sephiroth grit his teeth.

Pressure built up steadily.

The Weapon prepared to fly.

Sephiroth crouched down and sidled amongst the monster's shoulder plates. The emissions had yet to burn more brightly, so far saving him from being scorched. But he could feel the heat try to boil his bare skin and his still healing bullet wounds. The determined gray-headed man clutched his sword tight. The wings were mantled directly on top of the thing's shoulders, making them easy prey.

He stood up straight, hair waving weakly in the hot wind.

With the oxygen suddenly alight, everything turned a magnificent blue.

In a blink, the Weapon had already crossed the distance to exactly Junon's limits.

Looming like a reaper's shadow.

--

The concrete under me prickled.

It groaned.

I groaned.

The energy that gathered in the city's skies called.

It commanded. It even yearned.

"Planet."

The shadow in the sky shrieked, its cry echoing through each and every living and non-living thing around it. I sensed its fury, the Planet's soft, misguided fury. Sunlight sparkled against the thing's starlike body up above. Somehow, it was beautiful. Somehow, it felt like family.

I was confused. Could Sephiroth have been right? That this was kin? My kin?

Bright blue beams of light crossed each other then danced off in opposite directions. At the end of one, an explosion sounded, clouds of dust soared and rained down. At the other's end, a piece of the creature slid away from its body and plummeted to buildings below it. The shadowy thing tilted to its right, then lifted up higher into the air, echoing a chirrup of puzzlement.

Other pieces soon came to fall. Random squares and circles and triangles sprinkling down, inadvertently causing their fair share of destruction.

It was coming apart. Or someone or something was taking it apart.

Another beam of blue light flashed out of sight, and again, explosions sounded and dust clouds rose.

"I know what you're doing… But I'm okay. Isn't this how you made me? I'll be alright." I sighed and took a breath, letting the cool but dirty city air into me.

I was a child of the Planet, and I was a special child at that. I'd been given a power, a life, neither of which I understood and likely took for granted in my misuse of each. I was human and not human. I thought like one, breathed like one, even tried to ache like one, but I was not human. Why had this life of mine been implanted into my head and breast, my everything, like this?

Why was I Drana?

Why did the Planet make me her?

There had to be more, more to it than... what? What was it that was more?

"Planet, what is it?" I whispered.

"You were made to be my treasure."

"You're like the sister I never had. Not exactly all there, though..."

Hands offered themselves.

Sephiroth's.

Aerith's.

Why?

Aerith took the hand that wasn't there. Sephiroth took the other laboring for life. Together, they helped me stand on weak but straining legs. The ghost-woman in pink, who I would've liked to call sister as well, smiled so brightly it hurt my eyes. Sephiroth, battle worn he was, his eyes sober, had merely smirked.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"I…"

"No treasure should be as weak as its owner," he snickered.

"You know, don't you?" I muttered. "You know who I am, both of you, don't you?"

"Your achievements define who you are," Aerith began. "It's not just in a name or by who and how you were created. Names can be forgotten and creators will quickly fade from time, but what you do can affect everyone and everything for a long, long time, maybe even forever. Just look at Sephiroth here."

"Why me?" He looked befuddled.

"He tried to conquer _and _destroy all life on this earth. Though his name may be forgotten, as well as the people who reared him to meet such a fate, Meteorfall will be remembered forever, etched into the face of the Planet. New life will grow over those scars, but it'll still be there, like a monument of the past, a lesson to future generations."

"Hmph… Drana, let's go. Lay your kin to rest. Such speeches are best left to self-help books."

"So you can see her... and hear her now, too?" I breathed.

"Hehe, only because I want him to," Aerith replied happily. She touched my cheek tenderly, still smiling in that blinding way. "Okay. I've wasted enough time talking to you like this, but I just had to get it out. I can't help encouraging you for some reason, like you're more my daughter than a sister. Funny, huh? And here's your arm back. Takes two to tango."

A faint green light flooded out from my stump of a forearm, in ribbons. They wrapped around each other, winding themselves into something a little more solid. First my fingers, then my wrist, and then my arm up to my elbow; my skin fell like thickening soup. And my limb was whole again. I gasped silently, wiggling each individual digit.

"Who knew you carried ghosts like that with you?" Sephiroth muttered dubiously.

"Don't sound so ungrateful," I retorted with sad eyes. "She's the one who decided you get a second chance."

"Second chances are my own to give and get."

"If you say so."

The Weapon started to descend upon the city, its shadow growing smaller and smaller, or greater here and smaller there. Less like that of a reaper. Its giant forefeet came to rest in the street before us, while its hind feet caught on the sides of buildings, stripping whole walls of brick and mortar. Two figures flung each other from the creature's massive body, landing on a nearby roof. Cloud and Tifa. Cloud himself had shortly launched himself back onto the Weapon, swords flying.

They were not heeded.

The monster bowed its upper torso towards Sephiroth and I. He stood in front of me, his own sword crossed in front of him as defense. But we both knew it wasn't necessary.

It dropped a clawed hand down towards us.

"Well?" Sephiroth straightened himself and glanced over his shoulder.

I looked up into his feline eyes and shrugged. "I…"

The creature's palm turned down, claws clacked together as though ready to pluck us off our feet.

"I-I'm fine...? False alarm, see?" I thrust my arm out, the one restored to me by Aerith, for the Weapon to see. My body still felt light and sluggish, but I was otherwise as normal could be. For me.

Hidden vents in its skin between still clinging plates belched out steam.

"Cloud!" a voice, Tifa's voice, beckoned a ways away.

I moved past Sephiroth and pointed a finger up.

A claw returned the gesture, our tips touching.

I hoped it understood, and that the Planet understood.

The Weapon stood erect and roared aloud. Foundations trembled, birds scattered across the sky.

Lifestream took to the sky as well, swirling and winding and climbing higher, until it vanished into the late morning.

* * *

_---_

_From Sixth: I realize that no amount of... of editing, regardless of how many years later it's been done, and even growth in skill-- if any-- can help the corn and cheese I threw out here. Or maybe it's just me._


	26. Chapter 25: Hereafter

_**25: In the Hereafter

* * *

**_

-----

We slipped onto a ship out of Junon later in the afternoon. Or…

Rather, we tried. We were stopped at the docks, still devoid of life except for those toughened workers that would've even toiled through another Meteorfall. But it wasn't one of them that stopped us. Nor was it any of Junon's natives for that matter.

It was Vincent.

I thought he was dead at worst, or at best put out of commission forever. But to my surprise and relief, he looked alive, though not well. He was ruddy in the face, the same way he looked just before collapsing in the mansion across the sea. He appeared tired, too, leaning against a large load of crates stacked off to the side, red cape hanging limp off his frame.

He stared longingly at me, his eyes so focused as to unnerve one and all.

"Drana," his voice half croaked. He didn't sound well, either.

"It's the keeper of the overgrown bat," Sephiroth uttered with slight amusement. I elbowed him, even knowing the rags draped over me only dulled the action. But he took a step back. "Hmm... what is he doing here?"

"I remember you," I said, approaching him slowly, cautiously. "Are you okay? You don't look so good…"

"Before you go," he began, "I have a favor to ask. Will you come with me...?"

Sephiroth whispered his warning against the idea.

"Wait, I'm sure that's not what he wants. Look, he's not even in any real position to fight." I knelt down before Vincent, urging him to do the same. He gazed strangely at me but gradually dropped to his knees. I motioned to his left arm, well hidden under his cape. The gunman hesitated, but obviously he saw I meant no harm. Being who and what I was. He showed me his arm. Out of his entire body, this looked the weakest of all. Most of the skin was livid, scarred, cold to the touch; the nails were long, purple and cracked. I held his bony hand in mine and smiled sorrowfully.

"Ah, Hojo's guinea pig."

"It takes one to know one, Sephiroth," Vincent hissed. "Remember that."

The other fell silent, though an aura of disbelief billowed behind me.

"Drana, you showed me something... It was... There's someone I want you to meet. Her name… Lucrecia. She needs help; she needs someone to... end her suffering." He seemed to fight back tremors that wanted to shake him to the bone. The thought of this woman choked him up inside; I glimpsed it in his face, glimpsed it in the way he moved.

"Do you really think I could do that?" I asked.

He nodded. "The monsters within me are gone. I may be weak now but... I've never felt more alive. Though death now has a chance of catching up to me, I... don't care. You have to help her. She's been in pain for so long, so please…"

"Lucrecia?" Sephiroth said all of a sudden.

"Still don't know the truth, do you?" Vincent scoffed. "I still can't believe they hid it so well, for so long…"

"Wait, please don't stir him up," I interjected. "If there's anything else we still need to learn, let that come later. Now, what about Lucrecia? Where is she?"

"Nibelheim. Near Nibelheim, hidden in the mountains. She's there. You have to come with me, so I can show her that there's hope… Salvation."

"I…" I glanced back at Sephiroth who stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, looking out to the sea. He wanted no part in this. Insulted by the other man's implications. There was even a shade of violence in his posture, but he withheld acting on it. This wasn't the time for more fighting. This was the time for escape.

"I can arrange for a flight out of here," Vincent offered. "If what you want is safe harbor out of Junon, I can at least do that for you, in return for helping Lucrecia. Cloud and the others wouldn't have to know where you'd gone, no one. You'd be free to disappear into the populace forever. Just…"

"Well, if you put it like that… I guess we have no choice."

* * *

---

A few days passed. It took Vincent longer than expected to get clearance for a plane out of Junon, but he managed it, nevertheless. He snuck us on afterward, and we left for Nibelheim on the main continent. The flight lasted about ten hours or more, which we spent in general silence, and very little sleep, if none at all. Sephiroth fumed like a ghost, shooting the usual daggers from his slit pupils. But the black haired man paid him no serious mind, except to drop a scarce eye of mourning.

During the momentary breaks in silence, Vincent spoke mainly of Lucrecia and her ordeal. Sephiroth refused to listen but I myself could hear suggestions that pointed towards some relationship between them and this woman. Lucrecia willingly became this scientist Hojo's guinea pig, to be mother to super beings engineered right in her very womb. But her body couldn't handle it. She couldn't handle being injected with weird chemicals and foreign bodies that ate her health and humanity. Vincent had tried to intervene only to meet near certain death and surrendered to certain experiments, himself. Meanwhile, Lucrecia bore a child and disappeared shortly after that, but was officially pronounced dead. Vincent, drowned in guilt and despair, did pretty much the same, locking himself up in a coffin in Shinra mansion's basement.

There were holes here and there in his story, small holes, but his point still made it across. There was nothing but pain, remorse and despair, unimaginable wrongs done against them but accepted willingly. And then, loss and death.

I ached. It hurt to listen to these things.

Sephiroth had yielded only the tiniest bit.

And then we landed.

Nibelheim was several hundred miles to the north, maybe more. The Nibel mountain range rose high just to the east, and a river ran along the south. No longer worried about unwanted eyes seeing us, and not concerned with the pilot's, Vincent unloaded us from the plane.

"These mountains are a bit treacherous... but this is the closest the pilot can get to our destination. From here, we're on our own, on foot."

Vincent led the way; though we had to be a little patient, because he wasn't the spry gunman we'd first encountered at the moment. In spite of his weakness, he marched on. I saw the thought of Lucrecia driving him. With this resolve, Sephiroth and I knew we'd more than find the place soon enough.

And we did.

Seen from the highest points of the mountain range, there was a tiny valley, isolated in all senses of the word. Down there was a small lake, not even a lake, but a part of the river I'd seen earlier. So it flowed through the mountain, then rushed off into air towards the south, a waterfall.

If I'd never heard silence before, this took the proverbial cake. Here, the water hadn't even dared a murmur or roar. Not a single bird cried in the skies above. This valley was an utter tomb nestled within the body of the mountains. Of course. This was the perfect hideaway for someone of the greatest anguish to seclude themselves. Where not a sound ventured to arise, to disturb such grief and incur its wrath.

A tiny cave sat ahead of us. So unassuming, so lonely.

Vincent continued to lead the way, but his steps had changed. He took care in how he walked. Though I doubted those pointy gold-toed boots would've allowed him anymore caution than he was already taking, which didn't seem like much anyways.

We entered the cave.

At first there was just darkness, but I soon realized that the main cavern was set so far back and down, this stony corridor wouldn't have carried any light at all. Not until the very end.

"It was sheer luck that I found her here, in journeys I made some years ago," Vincent said softly. "I knew she wasn't dead. With what she had done to her body… She couldn't die so easily, if at all. Like what Hojo had done to me… I guess you could have called us immortal.

"But your hands, Drana… Ah, I feel so mortal now. I can actually feel life rather than just... endlessness. Understand what I'm getting at?"

I shook my head. I'd lived a short life so far, so there were still things I had to learn and become accustomed to. The raven haired man let his head sag into the high collar of his cape, and then looked up to the rocky roof of the corridor. He stopped. I stopped, too, and Sephiroth followed suit; quiet as he was, I almost forgot he was with us.

"I was trapped in an existence forced upon me by another. I thought the torture I endured would never end... because my body couldn't die. Not the way others could. So I was scared I'd just keep on living. In pain. But with your power…

"Lucrecia and I can move on. We can let go and start over."

A somber glow began to creep up the rock walls and along the floor, revealing little trails and patches of fluorescent mushrooms and moss tucked into cracks and crevices. I could see the ceiling start to rise a little higher than when we first entered this cave.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

It pulsed, ebbed and flowed. It was so sadly stunning that I gasped.

Beyond it…

I was graced with the sight of a most amazing materia fountain. The one buried within Nibel's northern mountains paled in comparison; it couldn't even compete in the same league. An altar of blue-white materia towered towards the ceiling, seated right in the center of a perfect disc of frozen Lifestream. Other deposits of condensed Lifestream jutted here and there from the walls of this lonely domed cavern, reflecting light any and everywhere. I rushed onto the fountain, throwing my hands out to catch spheres and diamonds of light on my fingers.

"This is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen... ever," I said, breath taken. "But at the same time... the sorrow here chokes me. It's so thick, like syrup…"

I heard Vincent sigh then come to my side, his boots clicking faintly on the materia underfoot. "So you can feel it, too? How her pain just flies at you from every inch of this cave…" He dropped to his knees, his hands in his lap. The man looked up at me, expecting me now to work a miracle at the drop of a hat. Instead, I just stared blankly, though his pained expression slapped a frown on my face.

I took a quick peek over my shoulder at Sephiroth. He hid in the dim shadows at the mouth of the tunnel, and dressed in a dark coat given him by Vincent, he seemed like nothing more than a rapidly fading ghost. Something held him back. Something disturbed him about this place. I couldn't explain it. But I sensed that Vincent could, though obliged not to, not just yet.

"Here she is," Vincent gestured with his feeble arm to the altar of materia haphazardly sprouting in front of us. I squinted. How could I not have noticed? A body encased inside, the body of a woman, long and wispy. She bowed forward slightly, head down, hands held against her breast as if to keep her heart from flying away. Her incredibly long brown hair swirled about and mantled her narrow shoulders.

"Wow... she's so pretty. Like…" I found myself at a loss for words. Vincent nodded like he expected me to react exactly the way I did. "The Planet feels pain for her, too…"

"Help her," he pleaded thoughtfully.

"Wh... what could I do?" I asked, running my fingers over the materia. Within, the way it grew around the woman's body made it appear as though her lower half had melted away over time, but I knew it was just an illusion from the refracted light.

"Do the same thing you did to me?"

"Truth be told, I'm not even sure how I did it myself, so I, I…"

"Just touch her. Your hands, they..." Vincent grabbed my hand in both of his. His grip felt stronger now. "They pull out the poison, what's wrong with the body. Right? They heal, restore."

"Your-"

"Yes."

"Sephiroth, maybe that's what I did with you?" I said.

He didn't bother answering, nor move an inch from his place in the shadows.

"What's wrong with you…?" I pouted.

"Drana." Vincent tugged on my arm, wresting my attention. I shook my head nervously and then nodded in response.

"I know…"

I lifted my hand from Vincent's, and then proceeded to circle the altar, taking in every inch of detail I could manage. Lucrecia was dressed in a simple white gown, eaten around the edges by time. But there was one detail I found most intriguing over the rest. Her lips were faintly parted, almost pursed. Their rosy smallness seemed to remind me of Sephiroth's lips, although they spent more time in a scowl or wrathful amusement than anything like demurral as I saw here.

I pressed my ear to the materia, half expecting to hear something, half not. And at first, I didn't.

"I don't see how I can touch her if she's inside materia like this…"

"Sephiroth," Vincent said.

"Huh?" I peered around the altar curiously.

"Lucrecia, I know I said he was dead, but... he's back now," he said, rising to his feet. "Take a look at him. This is your son-"

"You lying sack of-"

"Sephiroth!" I shouted.

"Lucrecia! Open your eyes!" Vincent exclaimed, his cape flying excitedly around him. "Sephiroth's here. You can finally see him like you always wanted!"

The fountain shivered unnoticeably. A disturbance played over my face and rags, but I couldn't find the source. Or maybe it was Sephiroth, because I saw him positively flaming with rage. He stalked towards the black haired man, snatching up his cape and yanking him off balance.

"How dare you call me the offspring of that wretch!" Sephiroth snarled. "My mother was Jenova and _only _Jenova. Don't you ever forget that."

Vincent sat on the ground, unfazed by the other's outburst. "You honestly believe that? Despite all your strength, you're so easily deluded… I feel sorry for you.

"Your real mother was a kind woman, though blinded by her questionable scientific goals. She gave up her humanity so she could be recognized for all her hard work, but then she saw her mistakes too late, and look at her now… She can't live, she can't die. Stuck between realms like this... is a miserable existence."

"You guys…"

"You think you can just spout lies and have me believe them?" Sephiroth sneered acidly. "Where's your evidence?"

"Take a look at Lucrecia's face. Then remember Jenova's. How could you ever come from something like that monster? Take a look at that woman's _lovely _face and see who really gave birth to you."

"I will not!"

"You can't deny it forever," Vincent spat, beginning to sound a little angry himself. "Face it, Sephiroth. Lucrecia's your mother, not some miserable space leech."

"I will kill you where-"

"Sephiroth, stop it!" I cried, but by the time the words finally left my mouth, he'd already had Vincent pinned underneath him, hands clamped around his neck. I panicked. In the other's current state, Sephiroth could easily kill the man. There was no way I could allow Vincent's blood on his hands but I'd no idea what to do. So I ran at him from the side, tripping on my own rags, and plowing into him headfirst. He and I tumbled onto each other. While he scrambled to attack the gunman again, I grabbed his arms and squeezed them tightly.

"He insults me! And you protect him?!"

"You're not killing anybody here, okay?" I screamed.

"You ignorant bitch…"

"Call me whatever you want," I frowned, "but the only reason you fight like this is because you KNOW it's true, you know she's your mother… but you hate humans so much for being weak and, and…"

"She's not my-"

"Listen to her," Vincent coughed. "Can't you even feel it?"

I pulled Sephiroth towards the crystalline altar and pushed him against it. He struggled, but avoided breaking free of my comparably weak grip. He was curious of the body in the fountain, ashamed of his curiousness and only radiated more anger to cover it up. He cursed at me and threatened to hurt me but I refused to let him go.

A gentle sob rang in our ears.

"No…"

"Yes, Lucrecia, there he is," Vincent whispered strongly.

_I'm sorry…_

"It's all right, Ms. Lucrecia. We're here for you."

A single ripple traveled over every length of the materia fountain and then vanished into nothing. Soon after that, the disc of Lifestream beneath us began to spike unexpectedly. Sephiroth and I huddled against Lucrecia's altar while Vincent fled the fountain's surface altogether. A ring of tiny spires shot up all around us, trapping us within its circle.

_My darling baby… How I never got to see your face…_

I slipped against a spire behind me and fell to the floor. Sephiroth emanated a puzzled horror around him, materializing into fuzzy blue clouds that blocked off his feelings and simplest thoughts. Out of the blue, a hand came to rest on my shoulder. Vincent.

"What's going on?"

"I, I don't know, I don't," I stuttered.

_I'm so sorry…_

"Do something," Sephiroth voiced through clenched teeth.

"Wh… Like what?" I sighed.

"Talk to her," Vincent said into my ear.

"I, o-okay." I pushed forward onto my knees, and then started to crawl up the side of the altar to my feet. The materia had grown unusually hot against my cheek, even soft and malleable. Had Lucrecia warmed to our presence? Could I have even pushed my hand through her crystal prison? "Ms. Lucrecia... Can you hear me? Like I said, we're here for you."

_Who are... you?_

"I-I'm a friend, a friend of the Planet. Your friend, too. We, we want to help you... if that's okay?"

_I... can't be helped. It's impossible…_

"L-let me at least try," I offered with a small smile. "You seem so unhappy locked up in here… Let me ease your pain, please?"

_How did you know…?_

"Your friend Vincent told me. He cares a lot about you. He asked me to help you."

_Vincent. Oh… I'm so sorry, Vincent. How I hurt you, too…_

"Lucrecia, you did what you had to do under the... circumstances. I don't blame you, I won't ever blame you." Vincent's hand strove past the materia spires. I took his hand in mine, and raised my other towards Lucrecia.

"Come on out," I urged. "Share your pain with me. I want to feel it, too."

_I couldn't-_

"Don't worry about me. I can handle it."

_No… Could you be…? Are you really?_

One of Lucrecia's hands twitched to life, edging slowly from her chest to the materia's inner surface. I placed my hand opposite hers, waiting for it to emerge.

_You're one of the things I wrote about… Aren't you? Lifestream…_

"I'm just Drana… but that doesn't mean I can't help you," I told her.

At last her hand surfaced from the other side. I grasped it firmly so that if she faltered, I'd still have enough of a hold to be able to pull her out and help her. Her skin tingled, cool like the winds of Icicle, and felt soft and smooth just like porcelain. But something else lingered there, too. A taintedness that wanted to poison anything it touched. More than the sickly stink of Junon's pollution, more than the rank and fetid death that ruled the innards of the Mt. Nibel reactor. Just the touch of her cried dimensions of what had been done to her body. Something dark like the things that crawled out of Vincent but perhaps darker than even that. I choked back possible tears and retches.

Her pain was overwhelming.

"I…"

Lucrecia fell into my arms instantly. I was caught by surprise that I'd slipped backwards again onto the floor. Vincent supported me somewhat, but was ultimately trying to reach for Lucrecia herself.

"It's okay now, Ms. Lucrecia. J-Just let it out. Share everything with me…" I hugged her close.

"My poor darling baby… How will he ever forgive me for all the things I've done…" She cried tenderly into my chest. Where her tears fell, I felt the poison try to stab holes into me. But I couldn't relent. I didn't.

"Vincent, there's so much inside of her, I don't know if I can…"

"Just do what you can," he encouraged, in his voice a startling crack.

"Vincent… I was only trying to help… And your father, gods, I looked up to him… Forgive me!"

"We forgive you," I assured, squeezing her as tight as I could. All the poison in her body made my flesh boil and pinch. This was the first humanly pain I'd ever really felt; it frazzled and fried my mind in a way unspeakably agonizing. My vision died into vicious starbursts and electric streaks.

"Drana, the fountain's coming apart!" Vincent alarmed me. "Move it!"

"Drana!" Sephiroth barked.

"Sephiroth," Lucrecia murmured sleepily.

"Sephiroth," I echoed. "She loves you, so much. I can… almost feel it in my heart, too…"

"You can't go! You're mine, or did you forget that?!"

"Stop being such a brat…"


	27. Chapter 26

_**26

* * *

**_

-----

The fountain liquefied into pure Lifestream, swirling waves of green floating high up into the ceiling. The small spires shot down into the liquid with a splash, sending drops flying through a docile frenzy of energy. Amidst it all, Sephiroth clambered to the edge, plunging his hands down into the Planet's blood.

"Come back here! You can't do this!"

"Sephiroth!" Vincent shouted, stalking up to the gray-haired man's side and dragging him away. As much as he wanted to do the same, he knew that if they both fell into the flow, there'd be no hope for any of them.

"Let go of me," he snapped, effortlessly snaking his way out of the other's restraint.

A single, shining bubble began to grow. It grew large, too large for the hole where the fountain once sprang. The puckering and bloating at the edge caused the two men to beat a hasty retreat. Its call brought them to their knees. Its eruption knocked them flat on their backs. Its waves had beaten stars into their eyes.

A wind bellowed over the men, taking all breath and sound with it, down the tunnel and into the world outside.

Then came silence.

"Drana," Sephiroth uttered, his lungs straining for breath. "I didn't say you could leave me…"

"Give it a rest," Vincent chimed tiredly beside him. "She's not gone... and neither is your mother…"

"That lowly dreg is not-"

"Didn't I say to stop being such a brat…?"

--

Sephiroth shot upright at the sound of my voice.

It was an unruly climb but I made it out of the Lifestream. Without Lucrecia. There was nothing I could do for her. She was too far beyond bringing back whole, unlike Vincent. But I'd taken all her pain, made it mine to bear, to eventually lay it all to rest where it belonged. In the past.

Before I knew it, she turned into a delicate wave of life and soared off into the Planet's heart. I'd have no idea what to tell Vincent, other than she might have felt at peace now. Although, I had inklings he would've wanted her in the flesh, to have and hold. I felt a bit guilty about not saving her body for him but…

"Drana, is that you?"

"Who else could it be?" I asked.

I gazed down at my hands. Where my skin had once been was now Lifestream. Encased in some unseen shell that formed my fingers, my arms, my legs, but only vaguely so. In an attempt to hold myself, my arms would glide through. No skin. No bones. Not even intestine. Nothing existed inside me but Lifestream. I hadn't anything to hold to my name anymore.

I was mortified.

Was I lost?

I only had my voice now. Would that leave me, too? Without skin, without a face to cling to?

"Wh-what happened? What's wrong with me!?"

_Don't lose face, Drana… or you'll fall apart. And then you'll lose your personality, too. You'll lose everything. Pull yourself together._

"Will I still be myself? I, I've been in the, in the Lifestream…"

_You're a part of them; they're all a part of you…_

"...are you a part of me?" I questioned warily. "Aerith? You and Sephiroth and Lucrecia and…?"

A flash popped in my gut, and a rain of whitish sparkles fluttered to my feet. My feet, where skin slowly wove itself back over me. Up my legs, my stomach, my arms, my chest.

Vincent's bright brown-red eyes fluttered like the sparks of light that flew off of me.

"This isn't a peep show..."

Blush hung on his face for only a second. "... What about Lucrecia? Where is she?"

"I know I saved something… it just wasn't her body," I admitted with sunken shoulders and averted eyes. "I'm sorry..."

He sighed and lay back down on the ground. I shook my head and looked to Sephiroth, who sat at his side just staring at me. I turned away, though catching the leaping image of him in the corner of my eye. His arms boomeranged around my waist and his chin locked itself into the small of my back like a hook.

"You can't your fate... Remember the Promised Land..."

"Ugh, Sephiroth, shouldn't you be caring more about your mother right now?" I scoffed. "I mean, was your mind in a totally different world?"

"If Jenova wasn't my mother, then I have none."

"You're such a liar, but in time... you'll accept it. And you'll accept her. And you'll see that I'm more than just some stupid trophy for you to parade around…"

"Sephiroth got that stubborn head from his father," spoke Vincent. "I think you may be in for a long haul."

"And who was-"

"Someone even I don't want to know," he concluded to say. I heard a shuffling and switched around to see Vincent working to get to his feet, which he did with little hassle. He approached me, however meeting with Sephiroth's hostility which resulted in warding him fairly away. The gunman grinned faintly, a tired thankfulness that was all he was capable of showing. "Thank you, for... helping Lucrecia. It, it'll be hard not…"

I lent a hand out over Sephiroth's head to the man. His left hand, less livid than when I first saw it, steadily took mine and held it. "I… really don't know what to say. I wanted to save all of her for you, I did, but something about her just wouldn't hold together. She floated away before I-"

"You don't have to apologize. You did exactly what I wanted... Your work here is done. We can move on. I'm in your debt."

Vincent's eyes gleamed mysteriously as he turned to walk away. His gait was strong, so much less burdened than in his original, but the loss still nipped at his heels. In time, however.

My body felt heavy for some reason, and not just because Sephiroth was hanging on me like a child to his mother. I supposed I was still burdened, myself, still loaded with questions on my existence and the way my body worked. I hoped the Planet would tell me; or maybe Aerith, since she seemed so knowledgeable of these sorts of things. And she was inside of me somehow, so I guessed she'd eventually tell me when I was ready, when she was ready. And Sephiroth was with me, though for how long, only time would tell; so sooner or later, he would be bound to draw something out of me with his shady agenda.

I wanted to ask myself why I decided to stay with him. Though, maybe I already knew why. I had to keep an eye on him. Aerith wanted me to keep an eye on him. And with Lucrecia somewhere inside, too, all she wanted was to be by his side. So I had to do the same.

The desires of the others outweighed my own.

I felt uneasy.

Did I really want to stay?

"You can't leave because you're mine," Sephiroth interrupted, clutching my thighs. "The truest path to the Promised Land…"

"You're hopeless," I sighed exhaustedly.

"Well… here's your chance to make me hopeful."

"Planet, give me strength," I prayed.

I was definitely in for a long haul. I only wished I knew how long.

* * *

_-----_

_Continued in **Black**, White and Gray_


End file.
